16 - Laserfiche WebLink

ATTACHMENT 3 Notice of Preparation Of a Joint Environmental Impact Report /Environmental Impact Statement Including Notice of Public Scoping Meetings /Request for Comments On the Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement For the TANC Transmission Project February' 27, 2009 To: All interested Parties A. Introduction The Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANG)', a California joint exercise of powers agency organized under the provisions of Chapter 5, Division 7, "Fide 1 of the Government Code of the State of California, and a Joint Powers Agreement dated as of December 10, 1984, and Western Area Power Administration (Western), an agency of the ti.5. Department of Energy (DOE), intend to prepare a joint Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) referred to as an ElR/EIS for the TANC Transmission Project (TTP). TANG is the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Icad agency and Western is the federal lead agency under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). TANC and Western will prepare the Draft and Final EIR/EIS to comply with both CEQA and NEPA. The TTP would include building and upgrading about 600 miles of 230 kilovolt (kV) and 500 kV transmission lines, substations, and related facilities. It would consist of five segments of transmission line corridor that extend from northeastern California through the Central Valley and split westward to the San Francisco Bay area and eastward to the Sierra Foothills. The proposed corridors have been identified to avoid, to the extent possible. residential and known environmentally sensitive areas, and to take advantage of accessible competitive renewable energy zones, as recommended by the State of California's Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative. This Notice of Preparation (NOP) of an 1-1R/EIS provides a brief description of the proposed TTP, a summary of potential project impacts, the times and locations of public scoping meetings, intormation on how to provide comments, and instructions for obtaining additional project information. On January 7, 2009, Western issued an Advance Notice of Intent (ANOI) pursuant to 10 Code of Federal Regulations 1021.311(b) to inform the public and interested parties about the TTP. On February 23, 2009, Western published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare a joint EI WEIS for the TTP in the Federal Register. TANC and Western will jointly conduct a public scoping process. during which public comments w ill be received on the scope of the EI WEIS, the proposed action, alternatives, and other issues to be addressed in the EIR /EIS. The members of TANC are the Cite of Alameda. the City of Riggs. the City of Gridley. the City- of I lcaldshurg. the City of Lodi. the City of Lompoc. the Modesto Irrigation District, the Cite of Palo Alto, the City of Redding. the Citc of Roseville. the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. the ('it) of Santa Clara. the l urlock Irrigation District. and the City of Ukiah. Additionally. the Plumas -Siena Rural Llectric Cooperative is an associate member_