[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 9, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10865-10866]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-4663]
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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
Shoreline Management Initiative, Reservoirs in Alabama, Georgia,
Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia;
Amendment to Record of Decision (ROD)
AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
ACTION: Issuance of Amendment to ROD.
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SUMMARY: This notice is provided in accordance with the Council on
Environmental Quality's regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 to 1508) and
TVA's procedures implementing the National Environmental Policy Act. In
1999, TVA adopted its current Shoreline Management Policy (SMP) to
implement the preferred alternative in the November 1998 environmental
impact statement (EIS) for the Shoreline Management Initiative (SMI).
On August 20, 2009, the TVA Board of Directors decided to amend SMP to
terminate the ``Maintain and Gain'' program, which
[[Page 10866]]
allowed for the exchange of shoreline access rights of equal or greater
value. TVA determined that the environmental impacts of the
modification of SMP would not materially differ from the impacts
quantified in the original EIS and that the effect of removing the
Maintain and Gain provision is adequately addressed in the EIS. The
environmental and project goals of the SMI and SMP would still be met
without the Maintain and Gain program.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles P. Nicholson, Program Manager,
NEPA Compliance, Environment and Technology, Tennessee Valley
Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 11D, Knoxville, Tennessee
37902-1499; telephone (865) 632-3582 or e-mail [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 1999, TVA adopted SMP to implement the
April 1999 TVA Board decision to adopt the preferred alternative
(Blended Alternative) of the November 1998 EIS entitled ``Shoreline
Management Initiative: An Assessment of Residential Shoreline
Development Impacts in the Tennessee Valley.'' In June 1999, TVA
published a ROD in the Federal Register (64 FR 300092, June 4, 1999)
reflecting this decision. The Blended Alternative emphasized
conservation of shoreline resources and no net loss of public lands
while providing for reasonable access and compatible use of the
shoreline by adjacent residents. It also included the Maintain and Gain
program that allowed TVA to consider requests from property owners
without shoreline access rights to obtain those rights in exchange for
eliminating shoreline access rights of equal or preferably greater
length and value; such exchanges would result in no net loss, or
preferably a net gain, of public shoreline.
TVA recently reviewed the Maintain and Gain program. Since its
inception in 1999, TVA has approved nine Maintain and Gain requests for
the exchange of water access rights on TVA reservoirs, which have
resulted in only a small increase in the amount of shoreline protected.
The closing of 7,113 linear feet of shoreline for private water use
access rights and opening 6,036 linear feet of shoreline access rights
to private landowners has yielded a net gain of 1,077 linear feet of
shoreline closed to residential water use access. Overall, this is less
than one-tenth of 1 percent of the 4,100 miles of shoreline available
for private water use throughout the Tennessee Valley.
The Maintain and Gain program was used infrequently, and the
decisions required to be made thereunder were vulnerable to some
inconsistency. TVA has determined that the elimination of the Maintain
and Gain program would have minor and insignificant environmental
impacts and that such impacts would not significantly differ from the
impacts quantified in the original EIS. The environmental and project
goals of the SMI and SMP would still be met. Consequently, the TVA
Board of Directors terminated the Maintain and Gain program on August
20, 2009. The termination of the Maintain and Gain program does not
affect the other key components of SMP, such as the use of vegetation
management plans, limits to the size of residential water use
facilities, use of shoreline management zones, management of access/
view corridor size, use of best management practices for construction,
management of vegetation, stabilization of shoreline erosion, and
education activities.
Dated: February 25, 2010.
Anda Ray,
Senior Vice President of Environment and Technology and Environmental
Executive.
[FR Doc. 2010-4663 Filed 3-8-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-P