Bonneville Power Administration/Lower Valley Power and Light; Transmission System Reinforcement Project

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Bonneville Power Administration

Bonneville Power Administration/Lower Valley Power and Light;

Transmission System Reinforcement Project

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

(DOE).

ACTION: Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement

(EIS).

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SUMMARY: Lower Valley Power and Light (LVPL) buys electricity from BPA

and sells it to the homes and businesses of the Jackson and Afton,

Wyoming, areas. Since the mid-1980s, LVPL's electrical load has been

growing by an average of 4-5 megawatts per year and continued growth is

expected. LVPL's customers use the greatest amount of electricity in

the winter when temperatures are low and heating needs are high. By

2001, during the winter season, an outage of one of the BPA or LVPL

transmission lines that serves these areas could cause voltage to dip

below acceptable levels in the Jackson area and to a lesser extent in

the Afton area. Low voltage levels can cause brown-outs or, under

certain conditions, a black-out. Without electricity, homes and

businesses are left without heat and lights. These conditions can be

dangerous to residents and businesses in winter. The transmission

system that serves the Afton and Jackson, Wyoming, areas needs to be

reinforced by 2001 to maintain voltage stability. BPA and LVPL propose

to maintain voltage stability by building an additional 115-kilovolt

line from BPA's Swan Valley Substation in Swan Valley, Idaho, to Teton

Substation in Jackson, Wyoming.

Potential Federal cooperating agencies include the U.S. Department

of Interior--Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Department of

Agriculture--Targhee and Bridger-Teton National Forests. In accordance

with National Environmental Policy Act requirements, BPA and the

cooperating agencies will prepare an EIS on this proposal to inform

decisionmakers about potential environmental effects of the proposal.

In addition, LVPL will take an active role in providing information to

BPA, the cooperating agencies, and identified publics.

DATES: Interested and affected publics such as landowners, special

interest groups, local and State governments, Tribes, utilities, and

community groups are invited to help BPA and the cooperating agencies

identify alternatives, environmental resources, and issues to be

addressed in the draft EIS. A packet of information to explain the

proposal, the environmental process, and how to participate will be

sent to interested or potentially affected publics at the beginning of

the scoping period. Four BPA-sponsored scoping meetings will be held in

May or June in Idaho Falls, Swan Valley, and Victor or Driggs, Idaho;

and Jackson, Wyoming. Meetings will be open-house style and project

material will be available for public review. BPA, the cooperating

agencies, and LVPL staff will answer questions and BPA will accept

verbal and written comments. The time and place of scoping meetings

will be announced in the packet of information being sent to interested

publics and in local newspapers. Written comments before, during, or

after scoping meetings should be sent to the Public Involvement Manager

at the address below. Close of the comment period will be announced in

the information packet and at the public meetings.

BPA, in conjunction with the cooperating agencies, plans to file

and distribute a draft EIS for public review in the spring of 1997.

BPA, the cooperating agencies, and LVPL will hold public meetings in

local communities to give the public an opportunity to review and

comment on the draft EIS.

ADDRESSES: BPA invites participation, comments, and suggestions on the

proposed scope of the draft EIS. Send comment letters, requests to be

placed on the project mail list, and requests for more information to

the Public Involvement Manager, Bonneville Power Administration--CKP,

P.O. Box 12999, Portland, Oregon, 97212, or call 503-230-3478, toll-

free 1-800-622-4519, or fax 503-230-3984. Comments

[[Page 19268]]

may also be sent to the BPA Internet address: [email protected].

Documents can be requested by calling toll-free 1-800-622-4520.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Mike Johns, Project Manager,

Bonneville Power Administration--TE, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon,

97208-3621. E-mail requests or questions should be sent to

[email protected], or call toll-free 1-800-662-6963. You may also contact

Nancy Wittpenn, Environmental Project Lead, Bonneville Power

Administration--ECN, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon, 97208-3621. E-

mail requests or questions should be sent to [email protected], or

call toll-free 1-800-662-6963. In the local area, contact Rick Knori,

Lower Valley Power and Light, P.O. Box 572, Jackson, Wyoming, 83001, or

call him at 307-739-6038 or toll-free 1-800-882-5875.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: LVPL serves its customers from two 115-

kilovolt transmission lines. One line, owned and operated by BPA, runs

from Swan Valley Substation near Swan Valley in Bonneville County,

Idaho, east to Teton Substation near Jackson in Teton County, Wyoming.

The other line, owned by LVPL, runs from Palisades Substation at

Palisades Dam, southeast along the reservoir to LVPL's Snake River

Substation in Alpine, Wyoming. At Snake River Substation, the line

splits; one line follows the Snake River most of the way into Jackson,

the other line runs south to serve the Afton area.

BPA can reliably provide 125 megawatts (MW) of electricity to LVPL

even if one of the lines described above goes out of service. In 1994,

LVPL's system winter peak was 120.0 MW. In 1995, the winter peak

unexpectedly hit 139.5 MW. In 1996, the peak climbed to 141.2 MW. A 5-

MW load from a commercial mine was not operating at the time. If one of

the transmission lines had gone out of service during the winter peak

in 1995 or 1996, voltages would have quickly dropped and the

transmission system could have collapsed, leaving homes and businesses

without electricity.

During winter conditions in this area, twice as much electricity is

needed at the time of shut down to re-energize the transmission system.

That is more than the existing system can handle, requiring BPA, LVPL,

the Bureau of Reclamation, and others to bring the system up in stages.

This requires a lot of time and could create a dangerous situation for

LVPL's customers without their own source of fuel for heat and lights.

As loads continue to grow, LVPL's ability to reliably serve its

customers will decrease. Reinforcing the BPA transmission system now

will provide LVPL with a reliable transmission system they need to

serve their customers.

Alternatives Proposed for Consideration: BPA and LVPL have been

studying ways to reinforce the transmission system. (1) Proposed

Action--Construct a new single-circuit 115-kilovolt line from BPA's

Swan Valley Substation, west of Swan Valley in Bonneville County,

Idaho, 36 miles east to BPA's Teton Substation northwest of Jackson in

Teton County, Wyoming. The new line would parallel the existing Swan

Valley-Teton No. 1 115-kilovolt line where feasible and would be a mix

of wood pole H-frame structures and lattice steel structures.

Approximately 75 feet of additional right-of-way width would be needed.

(2) Construct a new single-circuit 115-kilovolt line from BPA's Targhee

Tap substation south of Victor in Bonneville County, Idaho, 18 miles

east to Teton Substation northwest of Jackson in Teton County, Wyoming.

The new line would parallel the existing Swan Valley-Teton No. 1 115-

kilovolt line where feasible and would be a mix of wood pole H-frame

structures and lattice steel structures. Approximately 75 feet of

additional right-of-way width would be needed. A new switching station

would need to be constructed on or near the existing right-of-way near

Targhee Tap. The new switching station could occupy about three to five

acres of land. (3) Install Static Var Compensation at either BPA's

Teton Substation, or LVPL's Wilson or Rafter J Substation. All of these

substations are in the Jackson area and, depending on location, the

existing substation fence line may need to be expanded. (4) No Action--

The consequences of not taking any action.

Identification of Environmental Issues: Potential issues presently

identified for this proposal include: (1) effects on fish, wildlife,

and vegetation, including threatened and endangered species; (2) socio-

economic effects of potentially removing property from the local tax

base; (3) effects of construction and placement of electrical

facilities in floodplains and wetlands; (4) concern over visual

effects, noise, and other interference produced by electrical

facilities in rural and populated areas; (5) impacts on range, forest,

and agricultural resources due to construction and placement of

electrical facilities; (6) concern over human exposure to electric and

magnetic fields created by electrical facilities; (7) impacts to

cultural resources; (8) impacts to recreational resources; (9)

conflicting land use; (10) impact to property values; and (11)

potential impacts to soils (erosion) and water quality. Additional

issues identified through the scoping process may also be examined in

the Draft EIS.

Issued in Portland, Oregon, on April 23, 1996.

John S. Robertson,

Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

[FR Doc. 96-10755 Filed 4-30-96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6450-01-P