California Desert Conservation Area Plan Amendment / Final Environmental Impact Statement for Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System

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California Desert Conservation Area Plan Amendment / Final Environmental Impact Statement for Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System CALIFORNIA DESERT CONSERVATION AREA PLAN AMENDMENT / FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR IVANPAH SOLAR ELECTRIC GENERATING SYSTEM FEIS-10-31 JULY 2010 BLM/CA/ES-2010-010+1793 In Reply Refer To: In reply refer to: 1610-5.G.1.4 2800lCACA-48668 Dear Reader: Enclosed is the proposed California Desert Conservation Area Plan Amendment and Final Environmental Impact Statement (CDCA Plan Amendment/FEIS) for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) project. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) prepared the CDCA Plan Amendment/FEIS for the ISEGS project in consultation with cooperating agencies and California State agencies, taking into account public comments received during the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. The proposed plan amendment adds the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System project site to those identified in the current California Desert Conservation Area Plan, as amended, for solar energy production. The decision on the ISEGS project will be to approve, approve with modification, or deny issuance of the rights-of-way grants applied for by Solar Partners I, 11, IV, and VIII. This CDCA Plan Amendment/FEIS for the ISEGS project has been developed in accordance with NEPA and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. The CDCA Plan Amendment is based on the Mitigated Ivanpah 3 Alternative which was identified as the Agency Preferred Alternative in the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for ISEGS, which was released on April 16,2010. The CDCA Plan Amendment/FEIS contains the proposed plan amendment, a summary of changes made between the DEIS, SDEIS and FEIS for ISEGS, an analysis of the impacts of the proposed decisions, and a summary of the written and oral comments received during the public review periods for the DEIS and for the SDEIS, and responses to comments. The BLM will be accepting additional public comment on the CDCA Plan Amendment/FEIS within 30 days after the Environmental Protection Agency publishes the Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. Comments can be sent to: George Meckfessel, Planning and Environmental Coordinator, Needles Field Office, 1303 South Highway 95, Needles, CA 92363, or email caisegs @ blm.gov. Pursuant to the BLM's planning regulations at 43 CFR 1610.5-2, any person who participated in the planning process for the CDCA Plan Amendment and has an interest that is or may be adversely affected by the proposed plan amendment may protest approval of the plan amendment within 30 days from the date the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes the Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. For further information on filing a protest, please see the accompanying protest regulations in the page that follows (labeled as Attachment 1). The regulations specify the required elements in a protest. Protesting parties should take care to document all relevant facts and, as much as possible, reference or cite the planning documents or available planning records (e.g., meeting minutes or summaries, correspondence, etc.). All protests must be in writing and mailed to the following address: Regular Mail: Overnight Mail: Director (210) Director (210) Attention: Brenda Williams Attention: Brenda Williams P.O. Box 66538 1620 L Street, N.W., Suite 1075 Washington, D.C. 20035 Washington, D.C. 20036 Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your protest, be advised that your entire protest - including your personal identifying information - may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your protest to withhold from public review your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. All protests must be received by the Director by the close of the protest period to be accepted as valid. Protests that are postmarked by the close of the protest period but received by the Director after the close of the protest period will only be accepted as valid if the protesting party also provides a faxed or e-mailed advance copy before the close of the protest period. To provide the BLM with such advance notification, please fax protests to the attention of Brenda Hudgens- Williams- BLM protest coordinator at 202-912-7129, or e-mail protests to: Brenda-Hudgens- Williams @ blm.gov. The BLM Director will make every attempt to promptly render a decision on each valid protest. The decision will be in writing and will be sent to the protesting party by certified mail, return receipt requested. The decision of the BLM Director shall be the final decision of the Department of the Interior. Responses to protest issues will be compiled in a Director's Protest Resolution Report that will be made available to the public following issuance of the decisions. Upon resolution of all land use plan protests, the BLM will issue a Record of Decision (ROD) adopting the Approved CDCA Plan Amendment and making a decision regarding issuance of the right-of-way grant. Copies of the ROD will be mailed or made available electronically to all who participated in this NEPA process and will be available to all parties through the Needles Field Office website (http://www. blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/needles/nefo-nepa. html), or by mail upon request. Sincerely, Raymond C. Lee Field Manager, Needles Attachment 1 Protest Regulations [CITE: 43CFR1610.5-21 TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS: INTERIOR CHAPTER II--BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR PART 1600--PLANNING, PROGRAMMING, BUDGETING--Table of Contents Subpart 161 0--Resource Management Planning Sec. 161 0.5-2 Protest procedures. (a) Any person who participated in the planning process and has an interest which is or may be adversely affected by the approval or amendment of a resource management plan may protest such approval or amendment. A protest may raise only those issues which were submitted for the record during the planning process. (1) The protest shall be in writing and shall be filed with the Director. The protest shall be filed within 30 days of the date the Environmental Protection Agency published the notice of receipt of the final environmental impact statement containing the plan or amendment in the Federal Register. For an amendment not requiring the preparation of an environmental impact statement, the protest shall be filed within 30 days of the publication of the notice of its effective date. (2) The protest shall contain: (i) The name, mailing address, telephone number and interest of the person filing the protest; (ii) A statement of the issue or issues being protested; (iii) A statement of the part or parts of the plan or amendment being protested; (iv) A copy of all documents addressing the issue or issues that were submitted during the planning process by the protesting party or an indication of the date the issue or issues were discussed for the record; and (v) A concise statement explaining why the State Director's decision is believed to be wrong. (3) The Director shall promptly render a decision on the protest. (b) The decision shall be in writing and shall set forth the reasons for the decision. The decision shall be sent to the protesting party by certified mail, return receipt requested. The decision of the Director shall be the final decision of the Department of the Interior. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT IVANPAH SOLAR ELECTRIC GENERATING SYSTEM PROJECT ( ) Draft (X) Final Lead Agency: The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Needles Field Office Location: San Bernardino County, California Address Protests on this Proposed Plan Amendment to: Regular Mail: Overnight Mail: Attn: Brenda Williams Attn: Brenda Williams Director (210) Director (210) PO Box 66538 1620 L Street NW Suite 1075 Washington, DC 20035 Washington, DC 20036 Address Comments on this EIS to: Bureau of Land Management Attention: George Meckfessel, Planning and Environmental Coordinator, 1303 S. Hwy. 95, Needles, CA 92363 or Email: [email protected] Comment Deadline: 30-days from date of EPA Notice of Availability. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has received a proposal from Solar Partners I, II, IV, and VIII, limited liability corporations formed by BrightSource Energy (BrightSource), to construct and operate a solar thermal electric generating facility in San Bernardino County, California. The project would generate up to 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity using solar thermal technology. The proposed project was analyzed in a Draft Environmental Impact Statement that was published on November 13, 2009. The proposed project consists of three separate solar generating facilities, each consisting of a field of heliostats (mirrors) reflecting solar radiation to the top of a 459-foot tall power tower received unit. Heated fluid within the power tower receivers would be used to boil water to generate steam, which would turn a turbine and generate electricity. The permanent ROW required for the heliostat fields and power towers would occupy approximately 3,670 acres. An additional 377 acres would be used to support a Construction Logistics Area, and for shared facilities such as an administration building, maintenance warehouse, substation, and groundwater supply wells. Approximately 24 acres would be used for a natural gas supply pipeline ROW, and for access roads. The proposed project would cause the surface disturbance of approximately 4,073 acres during construction. Two additional alternatives were considered in detail in the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS), which was published by BLM on April 16, 2010. SDEIS analyzed a reduced acreage alternative called the Mitigated Ivanpah 3 Alternative, and a reconfigured alternative called the Modified I-15 Alternative. The facility evaluated in each of these alternatives is a solar thermal electric generating facility with a generating capacity of 370 MW. The Mitigated Ivanpah 3 Alternative is identified as the agency preferred alternative in this EIS.
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