Fish and Wildlife Implementation Plan

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Bonneville Power Administration

Fish and Wildlife Implementation Plan

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: 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 (FCRPS). Consequently, BPA has a

responsibility to understand the impacts of those efforts and to ensure

it can fund them efficiently. Therefore, BPA intends to prepare 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. BPA will coordinate the

scoping meetings and comment processes for this EIS with the other

ongoing regional processes. However, BPA is preparing this EIS for its

own purposes, and the EIS is not a predicate for decisions by other

Federal agencies.

DATES: BPA will establish a 30-day scoping period during which all

interested and affected persons and agencies are invited to comment on

the scope of BPA's proposed Fish and Wildlife Implementation Plan EIS.

Scoping will help BPA ensure that a full range of issues related to the

implementation of its fish and wildlife duties are addressed in the

EIS, and also will identify significant or potentially significant

impacts that may result from implementation of such a new plan. A

Notice of Scoping Meeting(s) will be published in the Federal Register.

That notice will announce the date(s) and location(s) of the scoping

meeting(s) and provide specific information on the close of the scoping

period.

When completed, the Draft EIS will be circulated for review and

comment, and BPA will hold public comment meetings for the Draft EIS.

BPA will consider and respond to comments received on the Draft EIS in

the Final EIS.

ADDRESSES: 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

[[Page 56489]]

outside of Portland. Comments may also be sent to the BPA Internet

address: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Charles C. Alton, Project Manager,

KEC-4, Bonneville Power Administration, PO Box 3621, Portland, Oregon,

97208-3621; phone number 503-230-5878; fax number 503-230-5699.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: BPA markets electric power from 29

hydroelectric dams operated by the United States Army, Corps of

Engineers (Corps); and the United States Department of the Interior,

Bureau of Reclamation (BoR), in the Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Montana,

Oregon, and Washington). Part of the power-marketing responsibility

includes complying with the laws meant to protect the environment. In

the last two decades, BPA has spent over $2 billion collected from its

ratepayers on measures to mitigate and recover fish and wildlife. BPA

currently spends approximately $252 million annually, plus there are

lost power opportunities and operational costs.

Under the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and

Conservation Act (Northwest Power Act), BPA has duties: (1) To protect,

mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife adversely affected by the

construction and operation of the FCRPS, and (2) to do so in a manner

that provides equitable treatment for such fish and wildlife with the

other purposes of the FCRPS. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA),

BPA has duties to avoid jeopardy to species listed under ESA and to aid

in the recovery of those species. BPA's mitigation and recovery

expenditures are typically in fulfillment of these Northwest Power Act

and ESA duties.

BPA expects that the entities that help guide its expenditures for

mitigation and recovery will recommend changes in BPA's spending regime

and programs. These recommendations could include eliminating some

current mitigation projects, significantly modifying others, and

initiating whole new projects. These changes in priorities may require

reexamination of the impacts BPA enables through its fish and wildlife

funding. Therefore, BPA is initiating an EIS to study the environmental

impacts that may arise from BPA's implementation of the alternatives

being considered in the other regional processes currently underway.

The EIS will provide a broad-based comparison of the impacts associated

with these alternatives.

The first regional process to develop alternatives that may affect

the implementation of BPA's fish and wildlife duties is the Multi-

Species Framework Project (Framework) which is managed collaboratively

by the Northwest Power Planning Council (States), Federal agencies, and

Tribes. The Framework is developing a set of alternatives for future

economic and natural resource management of the basin. The EIS will

consider the biological, social, and economic effects of those

alternatives.

The other major Federal decision-making processes that may affect

BPA's fish and wildlife duties are those associated with planning for

future operations of the FCRPS, National Forest Planning activities,

and plans for operation of fish hatcheries and regulation of fish

harvests. Nine Federal agencies are involved in various aspects of

these management activities affecting the Columbia River--the National

Marine Fisheries Service, the Corps, the BoR, BPA, the Environmental

Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian

Affairs, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. BPA is

also participating in ESA consultations that will lead to a decision in

the year 2000 regarding how to structure and operate the FCRPS. That

decision will not be considered in the EIS here being proposed. The

National Environmental Policy Act documentation for that decision has

already been or is currently being prepared in a separate process.

In addition to the Framework and Federal Caucus processes, there

are numerous other actions related to the development and

implementation of BPA's fish and wildlife implementation plan. These

actions include studies to address water quality issues in the Columbia

and Snake Rivers, various salmon restoration plans, and a review of

artificial (hatchery) production. Still other processes may be

identified during scoping. This EIS will use information from these

efforts in its analysis.

Need for the EIS

BPA intends to reexamine the assumptions underlying its current

fish and wildlife implementation plan. The purpose of the EIS is to

compare the status quo implementation plan with alternatives derived

from the other regional processes in an attempt to find a better way to

achieve greater administrative efficiency, biological effectiveness,

and cost-effectiveness while providing health and stability for the

environment and economy.

Issued in Portland, Oregon, on October 8, 1999.

J. A. Johansen,

Administrator and Chief Executive Officer.

[FR Doc. 99-27423 Filed 10-19-99; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6450-01-P