Small Town News

No significant impact found on Third Power Plant overhaul

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A finding of "No Significant Impact" and a Final Environmental Assessment were issued for the Grand Coulee Dam Third Power Plant overhaul last Wednesday.

The Bureau of Reclamation issued the finding for the Third Power Plant's six generating units overhaul.

The overhaul of the six power generators and related projects, with some beginning this year, will cost several 100 million dollars.

The six generators have been on line since the mid-1970s and have experienced age-related problems resulting in power outages and reduced reliability. Construction of the Third Power Plant was started in 1964 and completed in 1974.

The final EA does not address concerns over a plan to move pow-erlines from an underground tunnel to overhead towers. Those plans are part of a separate project and will be addressed in a seperate assessement, the document states.

In developing its environmental assessment, the Bureau of Reclamation considered four alternatives:

1) Take no action at all;

2) their "preferred alternative," which calls for the overhaul and construction of a separate material storage building;

3) Third Power Plant overhaul with expansion of the power plant for material storage; and

4) Third Power Plant overhaul with expansion of the power plant and a separate material storage building.

The preferred alternative (2) will take about 10 years to complete. During that time, Reclamation estimates that the economic impacts for the five-county area and region will vary in proportion to the government's annual expenditures.

The majority of the output, employment, and income impacts are due to wages earned by the work force involved in construction.

Reclamation made a Draft EA publicly available in October 2009, with copies sent to governmental agencies, elected officials, Native American tribes and the interested public. Comments received are addressed in the FONSI and Final EA. Those comments are accessible on Reclamation's Pacific Northwest Regional Office web page (http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/ea/wash/tpp/index.html).

Hard copies of the report may be obtained free of charge by contacting William Smout at the Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Region Office, 1150 North Curtis Road, STE 100, Boise, ID 83706-1234, or by e-mail at wsmout@usbr.gov.



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© 2010 The Star Grand Coulee, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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