Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects Electric Power Marketing Final Environmental Impact Statement

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Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects Electric Power Marketing Final Environmental Impact Statement Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects Electric Power Marketing Final Environmental Impact Statement COVER SHEET Title: Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects Electric Power Marketing Final Environmental Impact Statement, DOE/EIS-0150 Cooperating Agencies: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Reclamation Lead Agency: Western Area Power Administration, U.S. Department of Energy Written comments on this environmental For general information on the U.S. Department impact statement (EIS) should be addressed to: of Energy EIS process, contact: Mr. David Sabo Ms. Carol Borgstrom, Director Western Area Power Administration Office of NEPA Policy and Assistance (EH-42) Colorado River Storage Project U.S. Department of Energy Customer Service Office Room 3E-080 Forrestal Building P.O. Box 11606 1000 Independence Ave., S.W. Salt Lake City, Utah 84147-0606 Washington, D.C. 20585 Telephone: (801) 524-5392 Telephone: (800) 472-2756 file:///I|/Data%20Migration%20Task/EIS-0150-FEIS-1995/01eis0150_cov.html[6/24/2011 2:58:48 PM] Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects Electric Power Marketing Final Environmental Impact Statement ABSTRACT The Colorado River Storage Project Customer Service Office of the Western Area Power Administration (Western) markets electricity produced at hydroelectric facilities operated by the Bureau of Reclamation. The facilities are known collectively as the Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects (SLCA/IP) and include dams equipped for power generation on the Colorado, Green, Gunnison, and Rio Grande rivers and on Plateau Creek in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Of these facilities, only the Glen Canyon Unit, the Flaming Gorge Unit, and the Aspinall Unit (which includes Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal dams) are influenced by Western power scheduling and transmission decisions. The environmental impact statement (EIS) alternatives, called commitment-level alternatives, reflect combinations of capacity and energy that would feasibly and reasonably fulfill Western's firm power marketing responsibilities, needs, and statutory obligations. The viability of these alternatives relates directly to the combination of generation capability of the SLCA/IP with energy purchases and interchange. The economic and natural resource assessments in this EIS include an analysis of commitment-level alternatives. Impacts of the no-action alternative are also assessed. Supply options, which include combinations of electrical power purchases and hydropower operational scenarios reflecting different operations of the dams, are also assessed. The EIS evaluates the impacts of these scenarios relative to socioeconomics, air resources, water resources, ecological resources, cultural resources, land use, recreation, and visual resources. Western has identified commitment-level alternative 1, the Post-1989 commitment level, as its preferred alternative. The impact evaluations indicate that this commitment level is also the environmentally preferred alternative. file:///I|/Data%20Migration%20Task/EIS-0150-FEIS-1995/02eis0150_abs.html[6/24/2011 2:58:57 PM] Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects Electric Power Marketing Final Environmental Impact Statement 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 NEED FOR AGENCY ACTION The Western Area Power Administration (Western) needs to determine the level of long-term firm capacity and energy commitment from the Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects (SLCA/IP) that Western will make available to its customers and that will form the basis for its SLCA/IP power marketing program. 1.2 PURPOSE OF AGENCY ACTION The alternative commitment level selected by Western must be consistent with its statutory obligations and legal constraints. This necessity requires a weighing of economic, environmental, and other public considerations. Western's action will have to achieve a balanced mix of purposes as follows: Provide the greatest practicable amount of long-term firm capacity and energy. Provide for the meeting of firming requirements as practicable by purchases of capacity and energy. Provide long-term resource and contractual stability. Provide the greatest practical value of the power resource. Result in the lowest practicable associated adverse environmental impacts. Be responsive and adaptable to likely future operations of SLCA/IP facilities. Be responsive to decisions from the Bureau of Reclamation's (Reclamation's) Glen Canyon Dam Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) (Reclamation 1995) and the Energy Planning and Management Program (EPAMP) EIS (Western 1995). 1.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ACTION to sell and deliver capacity and energy generated by hydroelectric power plants built as part of certain Federal water projects. The SLCA/IP power plants include facilities in the states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. The facilities are located on the Colorado River and its tributaries and on the Rio Grande and its tributaries (Figure 1.1). Power generated by the SLCA/IP facilities or purchased by Western from other sources is provided to Western's customers under contracts that establish the terms for how capacity (generation capacity) and energy (quantity of electrical energy) are to be sold. The contracts also specify amounts of capacity and energy that Western agrees to offer for long-term sale (greater than 12 months) to its customers. These amounts constitute Western's "commitment levels." The capacity and energy level is called "firm" when its availability is guaranteed to the customer. Currently, Western's sale commitments from the SLCA/IP, including capacity and energy purchased from other sources, total approximately 1,300 megawatts (MW)1 of long-term firm capacity and 5,700 gigawatt-hours (GWh)2 of long-term firm energy. This commitment level was established in 1978 (1978 marketing program) for the period to 1989. As part of the development of its power marketing program for the period 1989 to 2004 (the Post-1989 marketing program), Western proposed to increase these commitment levels to 1,449 MW of capacity and 6,156 GWh of energy. file:///I|/Data%20Migration%20Task/EIS-0150-FEIS-1995/03eis0150_1.html[6/24/2011 2:59:04 PM] Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects Electric Power Marketing Final Environmental Impact Statement This EIS has been prepared in accordance with Section 102(2)C of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as implemented in regulations promulgated by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) (40 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Parts 1500-1508) and DOE NEPA implementing regulations (10 CFR Part 1021). 1.4 WESTERN RESPONSIBILITIES AND MISSION The Western Area Power Administration was established within the DOE pursuant to the Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 (42 U.S. Code [USC] §§ 7101 et seq.) (DOE Act). This legislation provided for the transfer of Federal power marketing and power transmission functions from the Secretary of the Interior through the Bureau of Reclamation to the Secretary of Energy, acting through Western's Administrator. Western performs these functions in 15 western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Western conducts its functions in conformance with certain laws, primarily the DOE Act, Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1944 (16 USC § 825s), Section 9(c) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 [43 USC § 485h(c)], and, in this case, the Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) Act (43 USC §§ 620-620o). While Western took over the power marketing activities, Reclamation retained irrigation, water supply, and dam-operation functions at Federal water projects constructed by Reclamation. FIGURE 1.1 Western's Colorado River Storage Project Customer Service Office (CRSP-CSO) markets power from the CRSP and the Collbran, Rio Grande, and Provo River Projects. The CRSP power plants are those authorized by the Colorado River Storage Project Act; specifically included are power plants at Glen Canyon Dam (the Glen Canyon Unit) on the Colorado River just below the Utah-Arizona border; at Flaming Gorge Dam (the Flaming Gorge Unit) on the Green River just below the Wyoming-Utah border; at Fontenelle Dam on the Green River; and at the Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal dams (Aspinall Unit) on the Gunnison River in Colorado (Figure 1.1). On October 1, 1987, the CRSP hydropower facilities, the Collbran Project (Upper and Lower Molina dams), and the Rio Grande Project (Elephant Butte Dam) were integrated as the SLCA/IP for marketing and rate-making purposes. The Provo River Project has been operationally integrated in the CRSP since 1963. The hydroelectric facilities of the SLCA/IP are operated by Reclamation. Within the limits on dam operations set by Reclamation, Western coordinates water releases with Reclamation for hydropower generation and markets the capacity and energy so produced. Western's power marketing responsibility begins at the switchyard of Federal hydroelectric power facilities and includes the Federal transmission system to interconnected utility systems. In marketing power in excess of project-use needs, Western sells both long-term and short-term firm power. This power is first offered for sale to what are known as "preference customers." This designation originates from the Reclamation Project Act of 1939, which requires Western to give preference in the sale of Federal power to municipalities, nonprofit corporations or agencies, cooperatives,
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