Implementation of Regional Fish and Wildlife Policy

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Bonneville Power Administration

Implementation of Regional Fish and Wildlife Policy

AGENCY: Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Department of Energy

(DOE).

ACTION: Notice of scoping meeting.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces BPA's scoping meeting for its

Implementation of Regional Fish and Wildlife Policy Environmental

Impact Statement (EIS) being prepared in accordance with the National

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). BPA has established a scoping period

during which all interested and affected persons and agencies are

invited to comment on the scope of the proposed EIS. Scoping will help

BPA ensure that a full range of issues related to the development and

implementation of a regional fish and wildlife policy is addressed in

the EIS, and also will identify significant or potentially significant

impacts that may result from the implementation of such a policy.

DATES: Please send written comments to the address below no later than

Tuesday, February 29, 2000. Comments may also be made at an EIS scoping

meeting to be held at the Governor Hotel, Grand Ballroom, 611 SW 10th,

Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, February 3, 2000, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the informal meeting, a brief overview of the EIS and presentation

of background information will be followed by an open house during

which attendees may discuss the EIS with BPA's EIS team. Written

information will also be available, and BPA staff will answer questions

and accept oral and written comments. The scoping meeting will be held

in

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conjunction with several other meetings related to fish and wildlife

recovery efforts in the Pacific Northwest.

BPA invites comments and suggestions on the proposed scope of the

Draft EIS. Send comment letters and requests to be placed on the

project mailing list to Communications, Bonneville Power

Administration--KC-7, PO Box 12999, Portland, Oregon, 97212. The phone

number of the Communications office is 503-230-3478 in Portland; toll-

free 1-800-622-4519 outside of Portland. Comments may also be sent to

the BPA Internet address: [email protected]. Please be sure to note that

your comments are on the Implementation of Regional Fish and Wildlife

Policy EIS.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Charles C. Alton--KEC-4, Bonneville

Power Administration, PO Box 3621, Portland, Oregon, 97208-3621, phone

number 503-230-5878, fax number 503-230-5699.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout the Pacific Northwest region

there are several ongoing processes to develop plans and programs for

the management, recovery, and mitigation of the Columbia River Basin's

fish and wildlife resources. These plans and programs will help to

shape a regional fish and wildlife policy direction that will guide

BPA's mitigation and recovery efforts, including its funding, for the

next decade or more. BPA expects to shift its fish and wildlife

spending accordingly.

BPA currently funds over 70 percent of the fish and wildlife

mitigation and recovery efforts on behalf of the Federal Columbia River

Power System. Consequently, BPA has a responsibility to understand the

impacts of those efforts and to ensure it can fund them efficiently.

Therefore, BPA is preparing an EIS that examines the impacts that may

arise from implementing one of the fish and wildlife policy directions

reflected in the alternatives being considered in the ongoing regional

processes. A Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS was previously

published in the Federal Register on October 20, 1999 (64 FR 56488).

Issued in Portland, Oregon, on December 22, 1999.

J.A. Johansen,

Administrator and Chief Executive Officer.

[FR Doc. 00-293 Filed 1-5-00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6450-01-U