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1 United States of America 2 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 3 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 J 6 ~lcoaPower Generating, Inc. Project No. 2197-073 7 North carol ina 8 Progress Energy Carolinas Project NO. 2206-030 9 ~orthCarolina 10 11 12 13 14 PUBLIC MEETING ON ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT 15 16 17 18 19 20 At Salisbury, North Carolina 21 Wednesday, November 14, 2007 22 Reported by: A. ~obinJ. Schenck, Court Reporter 2 3 Notary public 24 0002 1 APPEARANCES 2- 3 For the FERC Panel : Lee Emery, Fishery ~ioloist 4 Ste hen ~owler,Fish Bio9 ogist 5 Mar C awlo ow ski, Chief Hydro East Branch 2 6 ~ivision of Hydropower ~icensing 7 888 First Street, Northeast 8 Washington, DC 20426 9 10 ~lsopresent: Members of the community 11 12 PRESENTERS 13 ~arryJones Dick Martin 14 Lindsey Dunevant ~aulwoodson, Mayor Pro-Tem 15 Ro er ~ick ark ~ewis,Councilman 16 wi9 1i am Kennedy, Counci 1man 17 Wi11 i am Burgin, Counci 1man 18 Gene Ellis Susan ~luttz,Mayor 19 ~eauford~aylor , Mayor 20 Steve Reed ~obertVanGeons 2 1 ~obertPetree ~ike ~ayl or 22 23 24 0003 1 EXHIBITS 2 EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION 3 4 Comments from the Hi h ~ockLake Association Inc. 5 County of Stanly - W 1y a new license ... 6 Comments by stanly county to Section 401 (~arkerpoe) 7 Statement of Stanly County, NC ~ovember14, 2007 8 Stanly county Concerns November 14, 2007 9 Charlotte.com Hazards in Stanly 10 sadin: A Town at the Narrows (H< storical and ~rchitectural 11 Survey) -2 order Denying Old Republic's Motion For Summary Judgment Page 1 20071114-4021(18368214)[l].t~t 13 Statement from Save~igh~ock~ake.org 14 Motion of Ronnie Lee ~ualkenbushto Deny A~CO~Power 15 Generating Inc. License 'Renewal . 16 MR. PAWLOWSKI: I think as people come in, filter in and take their seats, we can open up this meeting. I'd like to thank everybody for comin out this evening. MY name is Mark pawlowski. I'm chie? of Hydro East ranch 2, Division of Hydro Power ~icensin at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. with me il ere this evening I have Lee Emery and Stephen Bowler, who is out making sure that everybody has signed in and can find a place to park. stephen and Lee are project coordinators for the yadki n and yadki n-Pee Dee hydroelectri c projects. As you are aware, the Federal Energy Re ulatory Commission under the authority of the Federa9 Power Act has the exclusive authority to 1i cense non-federal hydroelectric projects located on navigable waters or Federal lands or connected to the interstate electric grid. Upon the expi ration of an original license the Commission may issue a new license for a period of 30 to 50 years. Section 4E of the ~ederalPower Act requires that, when deciding whether to issue a license the commission must give equal consideration to develo mental resources such as power generation, irri ation, fyood control and water su ply; and environments? resources such as fish and wi1 d 7 ife, incl udi ng thei r related habitats, recreational opportunities, visual resources, and cultural or historic properties. Under section 10-A of the ~ederalPower ~ctthe Commission must insure that the project licensed is best adapted to a comprehensive plan for improving the waterway for beneficial public uses. In making this judgment the Commission considers comprehensive plans developed by state and Federal entities and the recommendations of state and Federal resource agencies, Indian tribes, and the public. Finally, in issuing a license the commission must include conditions that adequate1y and equi tab1y protect, mitigate damages to and enhance fish and wildlife based on the recommendations of state fish and wildlife agencies. Before I turn over this meeting to Stephen and Lee, I'd like to remind people that the purpose this evening is for staff to receive comments on its analysis in the draft Environmental Impact Statement for these projects that was issued on September 28th. Thank you. Lee. MR. EMERY: Good evening. Lee Emery. Glad to be here this evening. Hap y to be back in North Carolina. Got two warm welcomes t gis evenin : one, beautiful weather today. Wow. Secondly, these ligg ts are blinding. Ican hard y see people out there. Anyway, before we hear your comments on this DEIS, draft Environmental Impact Page 2 20071114-4021(18368214)[l].t~t Statement, Iwant to give you a brief synopsis of events leading up to today. Ma have seemed like a long process for some folks involved xere, but the application for the Yadkin Project was filed with the commission in ~prilof 2006, and is using the traditional licensing process. And we had a scoping document that was issued in ~ecemberof 2006, and we were down here in January holding four public meetings in and around the area. AS a result of these meetings site visits and responses to our additional information request to the licenses on March 15th, 2007, the commission issued a notice that the a plication was ready for environmental analysis and we t Een solicited recommendations of terms and conditions from the resource agencies. 'rhose were due in May of 2007. On May 17th, 2007, Alcoa ~eneratingfiled a ~inal settlement Agreement with -- on numerous -- for this particular project, and then finally the DEIS was issued on Se tember 28th this year with the comments due ~ecember 8tE . Our target schedule next step beyond DEIS -- we'll get it done. our target schedule is to have a final DEIS issued in January 2008. ~'mgoing to have Gene Ellis of A~CO~Generating say a few words and then we'll get into the process of hearing your comments. See if we hit the mark or missed the mark on this DEIS. MR. ELLIS: Good evening. My name is Gene Ellis. MR. EMERY: Excuse me. Excuse me one second. Before -- Isaid we would call Gene Ellis with A1 coa Generating, but as we come up, other folks as Icall them, please state your name and affiliation for the court reporter we have here. MR. ELLIS: My name is Gene Ellis. I'm a licensing and property manager for A~CO~Power -- MR. EMERY: Can you hear him out there okay? AUDIENCE: NO. MR. ELLIS: 1'11 be glad to turn around. (DISCUSSION HELD OFF THE RECORD) MR. ELLIS: ~oodevening. MY name is Gene Ellis and I'm the licensing and property manager for A~co~Power Generating Incorporated. Iappreciate the opportunit make a few brief remarks about the draft Environmentar Impact Statement prepared by the ~ederalEnerg Regulatory Commission staff. And by the way, welcome bacz to North carol ina . MR. EMERY: Thank you. MR. ELLIS: First I'd like to thank everybody, more than 100 people, who have been involved in the yadkin project relicensing during the past five years, especially those folks and 22 or anizations who worked so diligently with A1 coa to craft t !e Relicensing Settlement Agt-eement that wi 11 improve recreation opportuni ties and environmental protection within and around the Yadkin Project. In addition, I'd like to thank ark awl ow ski, stephen Bowler, Lee Emery, and the entire FERC staff for the effort that has gone into the relicensing process. In particular Iappreciate their support of the proposals contained in the Reli censi ng Settlement Agreement which ref1ect the broad support of state and Federal agencies, environmental interest homeowners and other advocacy groups. Specifica qroupsly I m , pleased that FERC'S staff has recognized Page 3 20071114-4021(18368214) [I]. txt the significant benefits associated with the Re1 icensi ng Settlement A reement's proposal to change the operating rules at Hig! ~ock~ake, including an extended recreat~on season that will keep more water in the lake. The LOWInflow Protocol for the Drou ht Management plan is another important piece of the ef? ort for conserving water in the yadkin-pee Dee watershed during times when water is scarce like it is now. There are many other important proposals the FERC staff has supported in the draft ~nvironmentalImpact statement. Improvements to water quality and development of plans for the protection of rare, threatened, and endangered species are just some examples. In addition, there are areas where we have work to do and we continue to search for appropriate resolutions in those areas. Alcoa will be roviding more comprehensive written comments into some of t R ese areas during the public comment period . since Ibegan my comments with appreciation for the fo1ks that helped us reach this point, I'm going to close with the same. hanks to all of you who have been a part of this. And like me you' re probably very glad that the end is on the horizon. Thank you again for this opportunity to speak this evening and for your continued work on the process. MR. EMERY: Thanks, Gene. okay, from the.number of people who have signed up thus far, we're going to see if allotting at least ten minutes er person to get through all of those eople will confine t R e time line, someone else would liR e to speak then take some more sequential speakers. Ste hen will help me keep time with the s eakers. we' B 1 try to keep people on schedule. please sR ow respect for your fellow speakers. And I'll call out the name, state your name and organization when you get up to speak. ~ikeyou to come down to the speaker, the microphone, when you're ready to speak. ~f you have some written documents, you can give those at the conclusion of the meeting or after speaking to the Court reporter.
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