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USACE Environmental Assessment

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USACE Environmental Assessment CENAE-RDC; NAE-2017-01342 MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD SUBJECT: Department of the Army Environmental Assessment and Statement of Findings for the Above-Referenced Standard Individual Permit Application This document constitutes the Environmental Assessment, 404(b)(1) Guidelines Evaluation, as applicable, Public Interest Review, and Statement of Findings for the subject application. The construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of the proposed electric transmission facility at the proposed location for the U.S.-Canada international border crossing at Beattie Township will require authorization from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in the form of a Presidential permit. The applicant applied to DOE on July 27, 2017 for a Presidential permit for the proposed Project in accordance with Executive Order (EO) 10485 (September 3, 1953), as amended by EO 12038 (February 3, 1978), and the regulations at 10 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 205.320 et seq. (2000), "Application for Presidential Permit Authorizing the Construction, Connection, Operation, and Maintenance of Facilities for Transmission of Electric Energy at International Boundaries." As required by 10 CFR 205.320(a), any entity "who operates an electric power transmission or distribution facility crossing the border of the United States, for the transmission of electric energy between the United States and a foreign country, shall have a Presidential permit." The DOE Office of Electricity, Transmission Permitting and Technical Assistance Division, is responsible for reviewing Presidential permit applications and determining whether to grant a permit for electric transmission facilities that cross the United States' international border. The Presidential permit Docket Number for this project is PP-438. DOE will author an independent assessment in support of their permit decision and pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 1.0. Introduction and Overview: Information about the proposal subject to one or more of the Corps Regulatory authorities is provided in Section 1, detailed evaluation of the activity is found in Sections 2 through 11 and findings are documented in Section 12 of this memorandum. Further, summary information about the activity including administrative history of actions taken during project evaluation is attached (ORM2 Summary) and incorporated in this memorandum. 1.1 Applicant: Central Maine Power Company (CMP or Applicant), 83 Edison Drive, Augusta, Maine 04336; Application number: NAE-2017-01342 1.2 Activity location: Multiple locations of aquatic resources from Beattie Township to Lewiston, Maine Aquatic resources between Beattie Township, Maine (United States Geological Survey (“USGS”) Boundary Pond quadrangle sheet; Lat/Long 1 CENAE-RDC; NAE-2017-01342 45.5165 60°N; - 70.187398°W) and Lewiston, Maine (USGS Lake Auburn East quadrangle sheet; Lat/Long 44.140075°N; - 70.719526°W) Aquatic resources between Lewiston (USGS Lake Auburn East quadrangle sheet; Lat/Long 44.140075°N; -70.719526°W) and Pownal (USGS North Pownal quadrangle sheet; Lat/Long 43.931707°N; - 70.204229°W); and Aquatic resources between Windsor (USGS Weeks Mills quadrangle sheet; Lat/Long 44.286523°N; -69.562329°W) and Wiscasset (USGS Westport quadrangle sheet; Lat/Long 43.9532 14°N; -69.696120°W). 1.3 Description of activity requiring permit: Pursuant to our authority under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S. Code ) and Section 10 of the Rivers & Harbors Act of 1899 (33 U.S. Code § 403), the New England District proposes to authorize the discharge of fill material into waters of the U.S. and work under a navigable water of the U.S. associated with the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) power line project within the State of Maine. The applicant proposes to construct a 144.9-mile long, 320 kilovolt (kV) High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission line from Beattie Township to Lewiston; a converter station to convert the Direct Current (DC) electricity to Alternating Current (AC) electricity on Merrill Road in Lewiston; a new substation on Fickett Road in Pownal; and a new 26.5-mile, 345-kV AC transmission line from the existing Coopers Mills Substation in Windsor to the existing Maine Yankee Substation in Wiscasset. The applicant also proposes to rebuild several existing transmission lines and upgrade three substations. The Project is being proposed in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Long-Term Contracts for Clean Energy Projects from the State of Massachusetts. The clean energy delivered by the Project is intended to provide firm, guaranteed, and tracked year-round energy deliveries that will reduce winter electricity price spikes, improve system reliability and resiliency, and provide renewable energy certificates and other environmental attributes to help Massachusetts meet its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals. CMP will not seek any cost recovery from Maine customers for the Project. Rather the Project will be paid for entirely by an affiliate of Hydro-Québec and Massachusetts ratepayers. The NECEC project will result in direct and indirect, permanent and temporary impacts to aquatic resources associated with construction and upgrade of transmission lines and the construction of substations or converter stations including impacts to freshwater wetlands. A total of 4.87 acres of jurisdictional wetlands will be permanently impacted and 47.64 acres will be temporarily impacted. Permanent fills are limited in size and are at separate and distinct locations along the corridor, and include minor fills for substation construction or limited pole placement in wetlands (ranging from approximately 30 to 195 square 2 CENAE-RDC; NAE-2017-01342 feet of fill per structure). An additional 111.55 acres of forested wetlands will be affected by clearing and conversion to scrub-shrub and emergent cover types. This area for total wetlands converted includes 105.25 acres of forested wetland, 3.678 acres of forested wetland habitat proximate to vernal pools, and 2.622 forested wetland associated with state mapped Inland Waterfowl & Wading Bird Habitat (IWWH). The USACE authority in this activity is limited to jurisdictional work beneath a navigable water and discharges of fill into waters of the U.S. Large portions of the project, approximately 98%, are outside waters of the U.S. and the USACE has no authority in these upland areas. The administrative record indicates: For the approximately 8,600 acres of total land associated with the project, only approximately 1,500 acres constitute waters of the U.S. (approximately 17%). Only approximately 1.9% of the project will result in impacts to waters of the U.S. Of the 1404 wetlands located within the transmission line portions of the project area (202.83 miles, inclusive of rebuild sections), only 82 (5.84%) will be impacted in part by permanent fill. Of the total amount of forest conversion for the project (approximately 1,038 acres), only 111.55 acres are waters of the U.S. (approximately 11%). Of the 1,450 transmission poles proposed by the applicant, only 98 (6.7%) will be located in wetlands. Permanent wetland fill for the transmission line portions of the project is limited to a 30 to 195 square foot area per transmission line structure, for a total of approximately 0.15 acres. Approximately 15.95 acres of land will be developed for the converter station, substation, and termination station components (i.e., station development sites) of the Project. Only two of the eight converter or substations will impact waters of the U.S. With the addition of access road related impacts for one of the two HDD termination stations, a total of 4.72 acres of wetland will be permanently filled for these elements of the project. A total of 757 vernal pools are located within the project area, only 83 of which (11%) will be impacted by permanent fill. Of the 83, only four will have permanent fill in the pool depression and the remaining 79 will be indirectly impacted by permanent fill in the 100 foot vernal pool envelope surrounding the depression. Permanent fill in each of these areas is approximately 50 square feet on average. USACE jurisdiction is limited to only those pools which are considered waters of the U.S. 3 CENAE-RDC; NAE-2017-01342 Of 742 waterbodies (rivers, streams, and open water areas) within the project area, only an estimated 224 will be temporarily spanned for access during construction. There will be no regulated discharge or activities in these 224 crossings. For all unavoidable crossings, the streams will be spanned with temporary bridges. At the Kennebec River, a HDD will be utilized to cross beneath the bed of the river. None of the four open water areas will require construction crossings, however they will be spanned by transmission lines. The following discussion of project elements includes activities that do not impact navigable or other waters of the U.S. They are presented to provide context only, otherwise they are outside USACE jurisdiction and authority. The HVDC portion of the transmission line will be placed on single steel poles that will average approximately 100 feet tall and will be spaced approximately 1,000 feet apart. The new 345-kV lines and the reconstructed 115-kV lines will be constructed on a variety of different structures, with variable heights including 125-foot tall steel structures, 80-foot tall single pole structures, 75-foot tall, wooden H-frames, and 45-foot tall, wooden, single pole structures. The applicant has divided the project into five transmission line segments and construction or upgrades of substations. CMP is the developer of the portion of the NECEC Project from the Québec-Maine border to the Lewiston, Maine area and all transmission upgrades on the U.S. side of the border. The facilities on the U.S. side of the border are entirely located in Maine. The NECEC Project will cross the Québec-Maine border in Beattie Township.
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