[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 188 (Friday, September 27, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59710-59711]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-23732]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R8-MB-2013-N138; FXMB12320100000P2-123-FF01M01000]
Golden Eagles; Programmatic Take Permit Application; Draft
Environmental Assessment; Shiloh IV Wind Project, Solano County,
California
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces the availably of
a draft Environmental Assessment (DEA) under the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) for the issuance of a take permit for golden eagles
pursuant to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act), in
association with the operation of the Shiloh IV Wind Project in Solano
County, California. The DEA was prepared in response to an application
from Shiloh IV Wind Project, LLC (applicant), an affiliate of EDF
Renewable Development, Incorporated, for a 5-year programmatic take
permit for golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) under the Eagle Act. The
applicant would implement a conservation program to avoid, minimize,
and compensate for the project's impacts to eagles, as described in the
applicant's Eagle Conservation Plan (ECP). We invite public comment on
the DEA, which evaluates alternatives for this permit.
DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be received on or
before November 12, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Obtaining Documents: You may download copies of the DEA on
the Internet at: http://www.fws.gov/cno/conservation/migratorybirds.html. Alternatively, you may use one of the methods
below to request a CD-ROM of the document.
Submitting Comments: You may submit comments or requests for copies
or more information by one of the following methods.
Email: ShilohIV_comments@fws.gov.
U.S. Mail: Heather Beeler, Migratory Bird Program, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Southwest Regional Office, 2800
Cottage Way, W-2605, Sacramento, CA 95825.
Fax: Heather Beeler, Migratory Bird Program, 916-414-6486,
Attn: Shiloh IV Wind Project DEA Comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Heather Beeler, Migratory Bird
Program, at the address shown above or at (916) 414-6651 (telephone).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering an application
under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 668a-d; Eagle
Act) for a programmatic golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) take permit
from the Shiloh IV Wind Project LLC, (applicant) an affiliate of EDF
Renewable Development, Incorporated, for a 5-year programmatic take
permit for golden eagles. The Shiloh IV Wind Project is an existing,
operational wind facility in the Montezuma Hills Wind Resource Area
(WRA) within Solano County, California. The application includes an
Eagle Conservation Plan (ECP) as the foundation of the applicant's
permit application, as well as a Bird and Bat Conservation Strategy
(BBCS). The ECP and BBCS describe actions taken and proposed future
actions to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse effects on eagles,
birds, and bats.
We have prepared this DEA to evaluate the impacts of several
alternatives associated with this permit application for compliance
with our Eagle Act permitting regulations in the Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR) at 50 CFR 22.26, as well as impacts of implementation
of the supporting ECP, which is included as an appendix to the DEA.
Background
The Eagle Act allows us to authorize bald eagle and golden eagle
programmatic take (take that is recurring, is not caused solely by
indirect effects, and that occurs over the long term or in a location
or locations that cannot be specifically identified). Such take must be
incidental to actions that are otherwise lawful. The Eagle Act's
implementing regulations define ``take'' as to ``pursue, shoot, shoot
at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, destroy, molest, or
disturb'' individuals, their nests and eggs (50 CFR 22.3); and
``disturb'' is further defined as ``to agitate or bother a bald or
golden eagle to a degree that causes . . . (1) injury to an eagle, . .
. (2) a decrease in its productivity, . . . or (3) nest abandonment''
(50 CFR 22.3). The Shiloh IV Wind Project will result in recurring
eagle mortalities over the life of the project, so the appropriate type
of take permit is the programmatic permit under 50 CFR 22.26.
We may consider issuance of programmatic eagle take permits if: (1)
The incidental take is necessary to protect legitimate interests; (2)
the take is compatible with the preservation standard of the Eagle
Act--providing for stable or increasing breeding populations; (3) the
take has been avoided and minimized to the degree achievable though
implementation of Advanced Compensation Practices (ACPs), and the
remaining take is unavoidable; and (4) compensatory mitigation will be
provided for any remaining take. The Service must determine that the
direct and indirect effects of the take and required mitigation,
together with the cumulative effects of other permitted take and
additional factors affecting eagle populations, are compatible with the
preservation of bald eagles and golden eagles.
Applicant's Proposal
The permit applicant, Shiloh IV, is operating a 100-megawatt (MW)
commercial wind-energy facility, consisting of 50 wind turbines, each
with a 2-MW generation capacity, in the Montezuma Hills WRA of Solano
County, California. This project was constructed adjacent to other
existing wind-energy-producing facilities. The recently constructed
(December 2012) Shiloh IV Wind Project was a repowering and infill
project entailing the decommissioning and removal of approximately 230
Kennetech wind turbines originally constructed in the late 1980s.
The applicant submitted an ECP on August 3, 2012 that was developed
following recommendations provided by the Service and consistent with
our January 2011 Draft Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance (http://www.fws.gov/windenergy/docs/ECP_draft_guidance_2_10_final_clean_omb.pdf). As recommended in the Service's draft guidance, the
applicant's plan outlines avoidance and minimization measures, contains
a risk assessment, includes experimental advanced conservation
practices, and adaptive management. The applicant submitted the ECP as
part of the permit application, and if we issue the permit following
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, then the
conservation commitments would become conditions of the permit.
The Service independently evaluated the risk of eagle fatalities
from project operations and compared that risk to the conservation
measures to which the applicant has committed. This is an essential
step in the Service's evaluation of an application for a permit for
programmatic take of eagles because issuing criteria require permitted
take to comply with the Eagle Acts's preservation standard. The Service
has
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interpreted this standard to require maintenance of stable or
increasing breeding populations of eagles (74 FR 46836; September 11,
2009). We evaluate the risk and offsetting conservation measures, and
the implications for direct, indirect, and cumulative effects under
four alternatives in the DEA.
Next Steps
The public process for the proposed Federal permit action will be
completed after the public comment period, at which time we will
evaluate the permit application and comments submitted thereupon to
determine whether the application meets the permitting requirements
under the Eagle Act, applicable regulations, and NEPA requirements.
Upon completion of that evaluation, we will select our course of
action. We will make the final permit decision no sooner than 30 days
after the close of the public comment period.
Public Comments
We invite public comment on the proposed DEA. If you wish, you may
submit comments by any one of the methods discussed above under
ADDRESSES.
Public Availability of Comments
We will consider public comments on the DEA when making the final
determination on NEPA compliance and permit issuance. Before including
your address, phone number, email address, or other personal
identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your
entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be
made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your
comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public
review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Authority
We provide this notice under Section 668a of the Eagle Act (16
U.S.C. 668-668c) and NEPA regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).
Dated: September 24, 2013.
Alexandra Pitts,
Deputy Regional Director, Pacific Southwest, Sacramento, California.
[FR Doc. 2013-23732 Filed 9-26-13; 8:45 am]
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