Notice of Availability-Final Environmental Impact Statement for Revised Water Control Manuals for the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin, 66702-66704 [2014-26639]
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 217 / Monday, November 10, 2014 / Notices
to the committee, in response to the
stated agenda of the open meeting or in
regard to the committee’s mission in
general. Written comments or
statements should be submitted to Mrs.
Ghostlaw, the committee Designated
Federal Officer, via electronic mail, the
preferred mode of submission, at the
address listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section. Each page
of the comment or statement must
include the author’s name, title or
affiliation, address, and daytime phone
number. Written comments or
statements being submitted in response
to the agenda set forth in this notice
must be received by the Designated
Federal Official at least seven business
days prior to the meeting to be
considered by the committee. The
Designated Federal Official will review
all timely submitted written comments
or statements with the committee
Chairperson, and ensure the comments
are provided to all members of the
committee before the meeting. Written
comments or statements received after
this date may not be provided to the
committee until its next meeting.
Pursuant to 41 CFR 102–3.140d, the
committee is not obligated to allow a
member of the public to speak or
otherwise address the committee during
the meeting. Members of the public will
be permitted to make verbal comments
during the committee meeting only at
the time and in the manner described
below. If a member of the public is
interested in making a verbal comment
at the open meeting, that individual
must submit a request, with a brief
statement of the subject matter, to be
addressed by the comment, at least three
(3) business days in advance to the
committee’s Designated Federal Official,
via electronic mail, the preferred mode
of submission, at the address listed in
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
section. The Designated Federal Official
will log each request, in the order
received, and in consultation with the
committee Chairperson, determine
whether the subject matter of each
comment is relevant to the committee’s
mission and/or the topics to be
addressed in this public meeting. A 15minute period near the end of the
meeting will be available for verbal
public comments. Members of the
public who have requested to make a
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have been deemed relevant under the
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in the order in which their requests
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were received by the Designated Federal
Official.
Brenda S. Bowen,
Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014–26642 Filed 11–7–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710–08–P
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army
Performance Review Board
Membership
Department of the Army, DoD.
Notice.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
The Performance Review
Board Membership list published in the
Federal Register on Friday, October 17,
2014 (79 FR 62432) is amended to
include the following individual: Mr.
Gabriel O. Camarillo, Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the Army
(Acquisition, Logistics and Technology),
Office of the Assistant Secretary of the
Army (Acquisition, Logistics and
Technology).
The Department of the Army
Performance Review Board will be
composed of a subset of the individuals
listed here and in the Federal Register
on October 17, 2014.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Barbara Smith, Civilian Senior Leader
Management Office, 111 Army
Pentagon, Washington, DC 20310–0111.
SUMMARY:
Brenda S. Bowen,
Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014–26637 Filed 11–7–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710–08–P
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army; Corps of
Engineers
Notice of Availability—Final
Environmental Impact Statement for
Revised Water Control Manuals for the
Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River
Basin
Department of the Army, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
AGENCY:
Notice is hereby given that
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Mobile District (USACE), has released a
Final Environmental Impact Statement
(FEIS) for the update of the AlabamaCoosa-Tallapoosa River Basin (ACT)
Water Control Master Manual (Master
Manual). USACE will accept comments
during a public comment period that
began with the Notice of Availability
SUMMARY:
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published by the Environmental
Protection Agency on November 7, 2014
and will end 30 days after that date.
DATES: Comments on the FEIS are due
by December 8, 2014 and should be
submitted as indicated in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr.
Lewis Sumner at telephone (251) 694–
3857.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
Master Manual includes appendices
prepared for individual projects in the
ACT Basin and is the guide used by
USACE to operate a system of five
federal reservoir projects in the basin—
Allatoona Dam and Lake, Carters Dam
and Lake and Carters Reregulation Dam,
Robert F. Henry Lock and Dam and R.E.
‘‘Bob’’ Woodruff Lake, Millers Ferry
Lock and Dam and William ‘‘Bill’’
Dannelly Lake, and Claiborne Lock and
Dam and Lake. Alabama Power
Company (APC) regulates four nonfederal projects—Weiss Dam and Lake,
Logan Martin Dam and Lake, Neely
Henry Dam and Lake, and R.L. Harris
Dam and Lake—in compliance with the
projects’ Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) licenses and in
accordance with USACE water control
plans for flood risk management
regulation and navigation support. The
updated ACT Master Manual includes
appendices prepared for two of the four
APC projects for which USACE has
authority for flood risk management and
navigation support—Neely Henry and
R.L. Harris. Water Control Manuals for
the remaining two APC projects—Weiss
and Logan Martin—will be addressed
later.
USACE has updated the water control
plans and manuals for the ACT Basin in
order to improve operations for
authorized purposes to reflect changed
conditions since the manuals were last
developed. The purpose and need for
the updated Master Manual is to
determine how operations in the federal
projects in the ACT Basin should be
adjusted to meet their authorized
purposes, in light of current conditions
and applicable law and to implement
those operations through updated water
control plans and manuals. The updated
plans and manuals comply with existing
USACE regulations and reflect
operations under existing congressional
authorizations, taking into account
changes in basin hydrology and
demands from years of growth and
development, new/rehabilitated
structural features, legal developments,
and environmental issues.
USACE regulations also provide
specific policy and guidance for
inclusion of drought contingency plans
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asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 217 / Monday, November 10, 2014 / Notices
as part of USACE’s overall water control
management activities in the basin. To
assure effectiveness, the drought plan
incorporates a comprehensive, basinwide approach that considers the
interrelationship of USACE projects and
APC projects and the proposed drought
plan was developed in collaboration
with APC.
USACE’s objectives for the Master
Manual update were to develop a water
control plan that meets the existing
water resources needs of the basin,
fulfills its responsibilities in operating
for the authorized project purposes, and
complies with all pertinent laws. The
FEIS presents the results of USACE’s
analysis of the environmental effects of
the Proposed Action Alternative (PAA)
that the USACE believes would most
effectively accomplish these objectives.
USACE evaluated an array of
potential water management alternatives
during the Master Manual update
process, resulting in the selection of the
PAA. One alternative available to
USACE would be to continue with
current operations. This approach is
termed the No Action Alternative
(NAA). Neither the PAA nor the NAA
would alter existing water supply
storage allocations or operations for
flood risk management, fish spawning,
or fish passage.
The proposed action does not include
the building, installing, or upgrading of
any facilities. USACE will not modify
any authorized project purpose via this
action, although the extent to which
some can be achieved may be affected.
This action is limited to the way
reservoir levels are managed and water
is released from them.
The Final EIS responds to, and
incorporates agency and public
comments received on the Draft EIS,
which was available for public review
from February 2013 through April 2013.
Four public meetings were held on
March 25th through 28th, 2013, and a
cumulative total of 129 persons
attended these workshops, either
representing various agencies and
organizations or as interested individual
citizens. Seventy (70) comments on the
draft EIS were submitted by agencies
(Federal, state, and local), private
organizations, and individuals. The
USACE responses to substantive agency
and public comments are provided in
Appendix B of the FEIS.
USACE incorporated pertinent
revisions and updates to the EIS WCM
based on input received during the
public review process. The key
revisions and updates to the draft
documents included in the final EIS for
the WCM update include:
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• The baseline condition for analysis
of alternatives was revised to reflect
actual withdrawals by Cobb CountyMarietta Water Authority (CCMWA) and
city of Cartersville from Allatoona Lake
as well as the City of Chatsworth from
Carters Lake. As presented in the draft
EIS, withdrawals from the reservoirs by
these entities had been limited to the
volume of water in the current water
supply storage agreements. For purposes
of the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s
River Simulation (HEC-ResSim) model,
‘‘actual withdrawals’’ are represented by
actual water use reported throughout
the basin in 2006, rather than the
volume of water in the current storage
agreements. The actual withdrawal
amounts in 2006 are the highest levels
of net water supply withdrawal reported
basin-wide and represent the greatest
stress placed on the system to date from
withdrawals.
• Based on further review of available
data during and following the comment
period for the draft EIS, USACE
determined that revisions of the
navigation ‘‘template’’ would be
appropriate. The navigation template
provides the technical information upon
which flow requirements necessary to
maintain navigable channel depths in
the Alabama River are based. The HECResSim model for the ACT Basin was
updated to incorporate these revisions.
• Provisions for operation of the
recently completed Hickory Log Creek
reservoir, as permitted in the Section
404 permit for the project (2004), were
incorporated into the HEC-ResSim
model. The Hickory Log Creek reservoir
operation was not considered as part of
the baseline condition but was included
in the simulation of the WCM update
alternatives. The final EIS includes an
updated description of Hickory Log
Creek reservoir and its relationship to
the ACT WCM update.
• The hydrologic period of record for
HEC-ResSim model simulation for the
ACT WCM update process was
extended from 70 years (1939–2008) to
73 years (1939–2011).
• Based on the HEC-ResSim model
updates described above, model
simulations were re-run for the water
management alternatives considered in
the draft EIS (No Action, Alternative D,
Alternative F, and Alternative G
(Proposed Action), and the
Environmental Consequences were
updated accordingly.
• In order to better understand the
sensitivity of the Proposed Action
Alternative to the potential implications
of climate change and increased future
water demands in the ACT Basin, model
simulations were conducted to address
(1) projected increases in long-range
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66703
water supply demands in the basin, (2)
potential for a long term reduction in
rainfall in the basin due to climate
change, and (3) potential for increased
air temperature due to climate change.
Both HEC-ResSim and HEC–5Q were
run to compare the Proposed Action to
these scenarios. These scenarios, the
associated sensitivity analyses, and
potential effects are discussed in the
Final EIS.
• The FERC license for Coosa River
Projects was finalized and issued in
June 2013, following the publication
and review of the draft EIS for the ACT
WCM update. The EIS document was
updated accordingly, including
discussion of the pertinent effects of the
June 2013 FERC license on the ACT
WCM update process.
• The EIS was updated to include a
description of the most recent activities
by non-Federal hydropower interests
and FERC related to potential
development of non-Federal
hydropower facilities at Carters
Reregulation Dam and Claiborne Lock
and Dam.
• Other minor corrections and
updates were incorporated into the final
EIS based on public comments and new
information.
Document Availability
The FEIS and appendices are
available to the public for review in the
following formats:
• Online as PDF documents at
www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/
PlanningEnvironmental/
ACTMasterWaterControlManual
Update/ACTDocumentLibrary.aspx.
• As a CD when requested in writing
to: Commander, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Mobile District, Attn: PD–EI
(ACT–DEIS), P.O. Box 2288, Mobile, AL
36628.
Public Review and Comment
USACE recognizes that the decisions
made concerning revisions to the water
control operations at USACE projects
within the ACT Basin will have wideranging effects and encourages the
public to submit comments on the
content of the DEIS. All persons and
organizations that have a potential
interest in the proposed action,
including minority, low-income,
disadvantaged, and Native American
groups, are urged to participate in this
NEPA environmental analysis process
by reviewing the FEIS and submitting
comments for consideration.
Comments may be submitted via the
following methods:
• Online at
www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 217 / Monday, November 10, 2014 / Notices
PlanningEnvironmental/
ACTMasterWaterControlManualUpdate.
• By emailing act-wcm@
usace.army.mil.
• By letter addressed to: Commander,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile
District, Attn: PD–EI (ACT–DEIS), P.O.
Box 2288, Mobile, AL 36628.
Further information regarding the
update of the Master Manual, including
all available documents, background
and historical information, and updates
is available online at the Web site given
above.
Next Steps
No sooner than 30 days after filing the
final EIS with USEPA and publication
of the EPA Notice of Availability for the
FEIS in the Federal Register, USACE
will prepare a Record of Decision (ROD)
which documents the final decision on
the proposed action in regard to the
update of the ACT Basin Master WCM
and the individual project WCMs,
summarize alternatives that were
considered and relevant factors that
were balanced in making the decision,
and identify means that have been
adopted to mitigate for adverse effects.
USACE will notify the public of the
ROD in a newsletter distribution to the
project mailing list, press releases to
local newspapers radio and television
news, and on the project Web site.
Landon M. Raby,
Major, Deputy District Commander, Mobile
District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
[FR Doc. 2014–26639 Filed 11–7–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3720–58–P
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army; Corps of
Engineers
Notice of Intent To Prepare an
Environmental Impact Statement,
Initiate the Public Scoping Period and
Host Public Scoping Meetings for West
Facilities Modernization, St. Louis,
Missouri, Metropolitan Area
Department of the Army, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
AGENCY:
Pursuant to the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA), as amended, the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
announces its intent to prepare an
environmental impact statement (EIS) to
analyze potential impacts to the quality
of the human environment resulting
from the proposed construction and
operation of new, modern facilities in
the St. Louis metropolitan area. The
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SUMMARY:
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE),
Kansas City District, will be the project
manager for this EIS. This notice
informs the public of the proposed
action, announces the public scoping
process, and solicits public comments to
identify issues related to the proposed
project.
The public scoping period begins
with the publication of this notice in the
Federal Register and will continue until
January 19, 2015. All comments
submitted or postmarked by January 19,
2015 will be considered in defining the
scope of the EIS. Comments submitted
or postmarked after that date will be
considered to the extent practicable. For
public scoping meetings, see
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To
provide written comments on the EIS,
request to be added to the project
mailing list, or for further information or
questions about the EIS process, please
contact Ms. Amy Blair, U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, Kansas City District by
telephone at (816) 389–3393, by mail at
Room 529, 601 E. 12th Street, Kansas
City, MO 64106, or by electronic mail at
NextNGAWest@usace.army.mil.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
delivers geospatial intelligence, or
GEOINT, that provides a decisive
advantage to warfighters, policymakers,
intelligence professionals and first
responders. Both an intelligence agency
and combat support agency, NGA
fulfills the president’s national security
priorities in partnership with the
intelligence community and the
Department of Defense. NGA is
headquartered in Springfield, Va., and
has two major locations in St. Louis and
Arnold, MO.
NGA is pursuing construction and
operation of a modern facility in the St.
Louis metropolitan area to better
support its mission to provide timely,
relevant, and accurate geospatial
intelligence in support of national
security. The proposed new facility will
support NGA’s current mission,
improve its resiliency, and address
challenges associated with its current
facility located on Second Street in the
city of St. Louis, including physical
constraints and security requirements.
The EIS will evaluate and disclose the
impacts of constructing a new
replacement facility and relocating NGA
operations at alternative sites, in
addition to a No Action Alternative.
No Action Alternative: The EIS will
analyze the No Action Alternative,
under which no new construction or
relocation will occur.
DATES:
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The Proposed Action will be to
construct a new, modern West Facility
in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
Alternatives will be developed during
and following the public scoping
period, and will consist of alternative
sites for the new facility. The following
six proposed site locations were initially
identified through a site location study:
• Fenton: 1050 Dodge Drive, Fenton,
MO (southwest of St. Louis);
• Mehlville: 13045 Tesson Ferry
Road, St. Louis, MO (south of St. Louis);
• NorthPark: 4800 N. Hanley Road,
St. Louis (Ferguson), MO (northwest of
St. Louis);
• North St. Louis City: Near the
intersections of Cass and North Jefferson
Avenues;
• St. Clair County: Along Interstate
(I–64), adjacent to the northeast
boundary of Scott Air Force Base (AFB),
Illinois (east of St. Louis); and
• Weldon Spring: 4700 Technology
Drive, Weldon Spring, MO (northwest of
St. Louis).
Two of the six sites have since been
removed from consideration. A portion
of the NorthPark location has been sold
and the remaining land does not meet
NGA’s requirements. Additionally, the
Weldon Spring location is no longer
under consideration based on master
planning review.
Scoping: Public scoping is being
conducted through January 19, 2015, to
provide the public with an opportunity
to offer input on the scope of issues to
be addressed and to identify issues
related to the proposed action and
alternative sites. As part of public
scoping, NGA and the Corps of
Engineers plan to hold three public
scoping meetings in early December
2014. The dates and locations of the
scoping meetings and other
opportunities for public participation in
the EIS process will be announced
through news media in the St. Louis
metropolitan area.
In addition to complying with NEPA
and DoD planning guidance, scoping
will be used to partially fulfill the
public participation requirements of
Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act (NHPA). Except where
subject to the confidentiality provision
of Section 304 of the NHPA, all
comments received during scoping will
become part of a project administrative
record and may be included as an
appendix to the EIS. A Draft EIS is
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 217 (Monday, November 10, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66702-66704]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26639]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army; Corps of Engineers
Notice of Availability--Final Environmental Impact Statement for
Revised Water Control Manuals for the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River
Basin
AGENCY: Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Mobile District (USACE), has released a Final Environmental Impact
Statement (FEIS) for the update of the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River
Basin (ACT) Water Control Master Manual (Master Manual). USACE will
accept comments during a public comment period that began with the
Notice of Availability published by the Environmental Protection Agency
on November 7, 2014 and will end 30 days after that date.
DATES: Comments on the FEIS are due by December 8, 2014 and should be
submitted as indicated in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Lewis Sumner at telephone (251)
694-3857.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Master Manual includes appendices
prepared for individual projects in the ACT Basin and is the guide used
by USACE to operate a system of five federal reservoir projects in the
basin--Allatoona Dam and Lake, Carters Dam and Lake and Carters
Reregulation Dam, Robert F. Henry Lock and Dam and R.E. ``Bob''
Woodruff Lake, Millers Ferry Lock and Dam and William ``Bill'' Dannelly
Lake, and Claiborne Lock and Dam and Lake. Alabama Power Company (APC)
regulates four non-federal projects--Weiss Dam and Lake, Logan Martin
Dam and Lake, Neely Henry Dam and Lake, and R.L. Harris Dam and Lake--
in compliance with the projects' Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) licenses and in accordance with USACE water control plans for
flood risk management regulation and navigation support. The updated
ACT Master Manual includes appendices prepared for two of the four APC
projects for which USACE has authority for flood risk management and
navigation support--Neely Henry and R.L. Harris. Water Control Manuals
for the remaining two APC projects--Weiss and Logan Martin--will be
addressed later.
USACE has updated the water control plans and manuals for the ACT
Basin in order to improve operations for authorized purposes to reflect
changed conditions since the manuals were last developed. The purpose
and need for the updated Master Manual is to determine how operations
in the federal projects in the ACT Basin should be adjusted to meet
their authorized purposes, in light of current conditions and
applicable law and to implement those operations through updated water
control plans and manuals. The updated plans and manuals comply with
existing USACE regulations and reflect operations under existing
congressional authorizations, taking into account changes in basin
hydrology and demands from years of growth and development, new/
rehabilitated structural features, legal developments, and
environmental issues.
USACE regulations also provide specific policy and guidance for
inclusion of drought contingency plans
[[Page 66703]]
as part of USACE's overall water control management activities in the
basin. To assure effectiveness, the drought plan incorporates a
comprehensive, basin-wide approach that considers the interrelationship
of USACE projects and APC projects and the proposed drought plan was
developed in collaboration with APC.
USACE's objectives for the Master Manual update were to develop a
water control plan that meets the existing water resources needs of the
basin, fulfills its responsibilities in operating for the authorized
project purposes, and complies with all pertinent laws. The FEIS
presents the results of USACE's analysis of the environmental effects
of the Proposed Action Alternative (PAA) that the USACE believes would
most effectively accomplish these objectives.
USACE evaluated an array of potential water management alternatives
during the Master Manual update process, resulting in the selection of
the PAA. One alternative available to USACE would be to continue with
current operations. This approach is termed the No Action Alternative
(NAA). Neither the PAA nor the NAA would alter existing water supply
storage allocations or operations for flood risk management, fish
spawning, or fish passage.
The proposed action does not include the building, installing, or
upgrading of any facilities. USACE will not modify any authorized
project purpose via this action, although the extent to which some can
be achieved may be affected. This action is limited to the way
reservoir levels are managed and water is released from them.
The Final EIS responds to, and incorporates agency and public
comments received on the Draft EIS, which was available for public
review from February 2013 through April 2013. Four public meetings were
held on March 25th through 28th, 2013, and a cumulative total of 129
persons attended these workshops, either representing various agencies
and organizations or as interested individual citizens. Seventy (70)
comments on the draft EIS were submitted by agencies (Federal, state,
and local), private organizations, and individuals. The USACE responses
to substantive agency and public comments are provided in Appendix B of
the FEIS.
USACE incorporated pertinent revisions and updates to the EIS WCM
based on input received during the public review process. The key
revisions and updates to the draft documents included in the final EIS
for the WCM update include:
The baseline condition for analysis of alternatives was
revised to reflect actual withdrawals by Cobb County-Marietta Water
Authority (CCMWA) and city of Cartersville from Allatoona Lake as well
as the City of Chatsworth from Carters Lake. As presented in the draft
EIS, withdrawals from the reservoirs by these entities had been limited
to the volume of water in the current water supply storage agreements.
For purposes of the Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Simulation
(HEC-ResSim) model, ``actual withdrawals'' are represented by actual
water use reported throughout the basin in 2006, rather than the volume
of water in the current storage agreements. The actual withdrawal
amounts in 2006 are the highest levels of net water supply withdrawal
reported basin-wide and represent the greatest stress placed on the
system to date from withdrawals.
Based on further review of available data during and
following the comment period for the draft EIS, USACE determined that
revisions of the navigation ``template'' would be appropriate. The
navigation template provides the technical information upon which flow
requirements necessary to maintain navigable channel depths in the
Alabama River are based. The HEC-ResSim model for the ACT Basin was
updated to incorporate these revisions.
Provisions for operation of the recently completed Hickory
Log Creek reservoir, as permitted in the Section 404 permit for the
project (2004), were incorporated into the HEC-ResSim model. The
Hickory Log Creek reservoir operation was not considered as part of the
baseline condition but was included in the simulation of the WCM update
alternatives. The final EIS includes an updated description of Hickory
Log Creek reservoir and its relationship to the ACT WCM update.
The hydrologic period of record for HEC-ResSim model
simulation for the ACT WCM update process was extended from 70 years
(1939-2008) to 73 years (1939-2011).
Based on the HEC-ResSim model updates described above,
model simulations were re-run for the water management alternatives
considered in the draft EIS (No Action, Alternative D, Alternative F,
and Alternative G (Proposed Action), and the Environmental Consequences
were updated accordingly.
In order to better understand the sensitivity of the
Proposed Action Alternative to the potential implications of climate
change and increased future water demands in the ACT Basin, model
simulations were conducted to address (1) projected increases in long-
range water supply demands in the basin, (2) potential for a long term
reduction in rainfall in the basin due to climate change, and (3)
potential for increased air temperature due to climate change. Both
HEC-ResSim and HEC-5Q were run to compare the Proposed Action to these
scenarios. These scenarios, the associated sensitivity analyses, and
potential effects are discussed in the Final EIS.
The FERC license for Coosa River Projects was finalized
and issued in June 2013, following the publication and review of the
draft EIS for the ACT WCM update. The EIS document was updated
accordingly, including discussion of the pertinent effects of the June
2013 FERC license on the ACT WCM update process.
The EIS was updated to include a description of the most
recent activities by non-Federal hydropower interests and FERC related
to potential development of non-Federal hydropower facilities at
Carters Reregulation Dam and Claiborne Lock and Dam.
Other minor corrections and updates were incorporated into
the final EIS based on public comments and new information.
Document Availability
The FEIS and appendices are available to the public for review in
the following formats:
Online as PDF documents at www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/PlanningEnvironmental/ACTMasterWaterControlManualUpdate/ACTDocumentLibrary.aspx.
As a CD when requested in writing to: Commander, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Attn: PD-EI (ACT-DEIS), P.O. Box
2288, Mobile, AL 36628.
Public Review and Comment
USACE recognizes that the decisions made concerning revisions to
the water control operations at USACE projects within the ACT Basin
will have wide-ranging effects and encourages the public to submit
comments on the content of the DEIS. All persons and organizations that
have a potential interest in the proposed action, including minority,
low-income, disadvantaged, and Native American groups, are urged to
participate in this NEPA environmental analysis process by reviewing
the FEIS and submitting comments for consideration.
Comments may be submitted via the following methods:
Online at www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/
[[Page 66704]]
PlanningEnvironmental/ACTMasterWaterControlManualUpdate.
By emailing act-wcm@usace.army.mil.
By letter addressed to: Commander, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Mobile District, Attn: PD-EI (ACT-DEIS), P.O. Box 2288,
Mobile, AL 36628.
Further information regarding the update of the Master Manual,
including all available documents, background and historical
information, and updates is available online at the Web site given
above.
Next Steps
No sooner than 30 days after filing the final EIS with USEPA and
publication of the EPA Notice of Availability for the FEIS in the
Federal Register, USACE will prepare a Record of Decision (ROD) which
documents the final decision on the proposed action in regard to the
update of the ACT Basin Master WCM and the individual project WCMs,
summarize alternatives that were considered and relevant factors that
were balanced in making the decision, and identify means that have been
adopted to mitigate for adverse effects. USACE will notify the public
of the ROD in a newsletter distribution to the project mailing list,
press releases to local newspapers radio and television news, and on
the project Web site.
Landon M. Raby,
Major, Deputy District Commander, Mobile District, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
[FR Doc. 2014-26639 Filed 11-7-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3720-58-P
