Environmental Impact Statement for Addition of Electric Generation Peaking and Baseload Capacity at Greenfield Sites, Haywood County, Tennessee

[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 106 (Thursday, June 3, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29935-29937]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-13747]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Environmental Impact Statement for Addition of Electric 
Generation Peaking and Baseload Capacity at Greenfield Sites, Haywood 
County, Tennessee

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will prepare an 
environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed construction and 
operation of natural gas fired generating plants in Haywood County, 
Tennessee. The plants would supply peaking and/or baseload capacity to 
the TVA electric generation system to meet growing power demands. The 
EIS will evaluate the potential environmental impacts of constructing 
and operating both simple cycle and combined cycle combustion turbine 
plants. The plants would be built on previously undeveloped, greenfield 
site. TVA wants to use the EIS process to obtain public involvement on 
this proposal. Public comment is invited concerning both the scope of 
the EIS and environmental issues that should be addressed as a part of 
this EIS.

DATES: Comments on the scope and environmental issues for the EIS must 
be postmarked or e-mailed no later than July 6, 1999, to ensure 
consideration. Late comments will receive every consideration possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Greg Askew, P.E., Senior 
Specialist, National Environmental Policy Act, Tennessee Valley 
Authority, Mail stop WT 8C, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville, 
Tennessee 37902-1499. Comments may be e-mailed to gaskew@tva.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Roy V. Carter, P.E., EIS Project 
Manager, Environmental Research Center, Tennessee Valley Authority, 
mail stop CEB 4C, Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35662-1010. E-mail may be sent 
to rvcarter@tva.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Project Description

    TVA proposes to construct and operate one or more electric power 
plants on a greenfield site as early as June 2001. The proposed plants 
would be simple cycle or combined cycle natural gas fired combustion 
turbine plants for peaking or baseload operation respectively. The 
generation capacity of a single plant would be up to approximately 700 
megawatt (MW) for a simple cycle peaking plant, 1,000 MW for a simple 
cycle plant after conversion to combined cycle technology, and 1,500 MW 
for a new combined cycle plant. Certain combinations of two plants at a 
single site would result in a total of 1,400 MW of peaking capacity, or 
700 MW peaking and 1,000 MW baseload for a total capacity of 1,700 MW.
    Three candidate greenfield sites have been identified in Haywood 
County, Tennessee. Candidate sites were identified through a detailed 
screening process that considered: (1) TVA's transmission system 
capacity at the locale; (2) reliable and economical long-term supply of 
natural gas; (3) engineering suitability of the site; (4) compatibility 
with surrounding land use; and (5) environmental factors including 
wetlands, floodplains, water supply, water quality, air quality, and 
historic and archaeological resources.

Peaking Plant

    A typical peaking plant would consist of several simple cycle 
combustion turbines such as the General Electric Model GE 7FA with a 
rated net power output of 170 MW. These turbines would be fired with 
natural gas as the primary fuel and low sulfur fuel oil as the 
secondary fuel. These combustion turbines would employ dry low-nitrogen 
oxides (NOx) combustion chambers and water injection for NOx control 
when firing fuel oil.
    The proposed sites would be located near both TVA power 
transmission lines (161 kilovolt (kV) or 500 kV) and adequate natural 
gas service to

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minimize the lengths and therefore cost of these interconnections. Each 
plant would require a site area of approximately 35 to 40 acres.
    Other appurtenances and ancillary equipment would include step-up 
transformers for 161 kV or 500 kV service, transmission line 
interconnection, natural gas pipeline connection and metering, 
demineralized water supply for the water injection nitrogen oxides 
control systems, fuel oil storage tank(s), and control and maintenance 
support buildings.

Baseload Plant

    A typical baseload plant could consist of one or more combustion 
turbines such as the General Electric Model GE 7FA with a rated net 
power output of 170 MW. One or more heat recovery steam generators 
(HRSGs) would be used to generate steam from the turbine exhaust gases 
waste heat. The HRSGs may also have direct firing of natural gas to 
supplement the exhaust heat input. The resulting steam flow is then 
passed through a steam turbine(s) which operates a generator(s) to 
produce additional electric power. With the addition of these 
components, a peaking plant may be converted to a combined cycle plant 
for baseload operation.
    Additional ancillary equipment beyond that required for a peaking 
plant would include cooling towers that supply cooling water for steam 
condensers. These cooling towers require a consequential source of 
water to makeup for both evaporative losses and the blowdown necessary 
to maintain water quality in the cooling tower. As a result, there 
would be on-site and/or off-site wells developed or an intake pumping 
station constructed in a large stream to supply the water. In both 
cases, a water pipeline would be constructed to connect the water 
supply with the plant. The cooling tower blowdown is a heated 
wastewater with a high dissolved solids content requiring treatment 
and/or disposal. Typical practice would be to construct a pipeline to a 
receiving stream having the capacity to assimilate the wastewater. An 
alternative would be to treat the blowdown on-site and recycle the 
water as cooling tower makeup water. This option would require 
construction of an on-site treatment facility and disposal of resulting 
sludge. Additionally, a water treatment facility would be required to 
supply demineralized water for various plant uses.

TVA's Integrated Resource Plan and the Need for Power

    This EIS will tier from TVA's Energy Vision 2020: An Integrated 
Resource Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. 
Energy Vision 2020 was completed in December 1995 and a Record of 
Decision issued on February 28, 1996 (61 FR 7572). Energy Vision 2020 
analyzed a full range of supply-side and demand-side options to meet 
customer energy needs for the period 1995 to 2020. These options were 
ranked using several criteria including environmental performance. 
Favorable options were formulated into strategies. A group of options 
drawn from several effective strategies was chosen as TVA's preferred 
alternative. The supply-side options selected to meet peaking and 
baseload capacity needs through the 2005 period included: (1) Addition 
of simple cycle or combined cycle combustion turbines to TVA's 
generation system, (2) purchase of call options for peaking or baseload 
capacity, and (3) market purchases of peaking or baseload capacity. The 
short-term action plan of Energy Vision 2020 identified a need for 
3,000 MW of baseload and peaking additions through the year 2002. This 
is in addition to the baseload capacity additions of the successful 
completion of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 and the return to service 
of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3.
    Each year TVA provides updated projections of supply and demand for 
the TVA sub-region of the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council. 
This is for the U.S. Department of Energy's annual report EIA-411. This 
year's report shows expected peak demands growing at 2.2 percent from 
1999 to 2003 and beyond. The net capacity resources needed to meet the 
growth in demand increases 2,000 megawatts by year 2001, and 3,400 
megawatts by year 2003. (See line item 13 on Table--Item 2.1 Projected 
Capacity and Demand--Summer of the EIA-411 report.) The addition of the 
combustion turbines is needed by TVA to meet the peaking capacity 
requirements from both the reliability and cost standpoint. Baseload 
capacity is not expected to be needed until 2004 or 2005.
    Since 1995 additional power needs have been met or will be met in 
the following ways: (1) Continuing modernization of existing TVA 
hydroelectric plants (both conventional and pumped storage) will add 
approximately 388 MW of peaking capacity through 2002; (2) the Red 
Hills Power Project, a 440 MW lignite coal fired plant will begin 
commercial baseload operation in 2001 (TVA Record of Decision, 63 FR 
44944); (3) 680 MW of simple cycle combustion turbines are proposed for 
the TVA Johnsonville, Colbert and Gallatin Fossil Plants with 
commercial operation as early as June 2000 (Final EIS Notice of 
Availability, 64 FR 27782); (4) various power purchase agreements in 
effect over this period; (5) demand side customer service programs 
continue to be implemented through TVA power distributors with an 
estimated 154 MW of capacity added from 1995 through 1999 and an 
additional 264 MW from 2000 through 2002; (6) distributed generation 
initiatives are being pursued by TVA and include operation of the 14 MW 
emergency diesel generators at the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power 
Plant site; and (7) a Green Power Program that would begin in 2000 as a 
market test with several MW of capacity. Technologies for this program 
may include landfill gas, photovoltiacs, and wind.
    Because Energy Vision 2020 identified and evaluated alternative 
supply-side and demand-side energy resources and technologies for 
meeting peak and baseload capacity needs, this EIS will not reevaluate 
those alternatives. This EIS will focus on the site-specific impacts of 
constructing and operating simple cycle combustion turbines and 
combined cycle plants at several candidate sites.

Proposed Issues To Be Addressed

    The EIS will describe the existing environmental and socioeconomic 
resources at and in the vicinity of each candidate site that would be 
affected by construction and operation of a power plant. TVA's 
evaluation of environmental impacts to these resources will include, 
but not necessarily be limited to the potential impacts on air quality, 
water quality, aquatic and terrestrial ecology, endangered and 
threatened species, wetlands, aesthetics and visual resources, noise, 
land use, historic and archaeological resources, and socioeconomic 
resources.

Alternatives

    The results of evaluating the potential environmental impacts and 
other important issues identified in the scoping process together with 
engineering and economic considerations will be used by TVA in 
selecting a preferred alternative. At this time, TVA has identified the 
following alternatives for detailed evaluation: (1) Construct and 
operate simple cycle combustion turbine peaking plants at

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one of the candidate sites as early as June 2001 with and without 
future conversion to a combined cycle plant, (2) construct and operate 
a combined cycle baseload plant at the candidate site, (3) construct 
and operate both peaking and baseload plants at the candidate site, and 
(4) no action.

Scoping Process

    Scoping, which is integral to the NEPA process, is a procedure that 
solicits public input to the EIS process to ensure that: (1) Issues are 
identified early and properly studied; (2) issues of little 
significance do not consume substantial time and effort; (3) the draft 
EIS is thorough and balanced; and (4) delays caused by an inadequate 
EIS are avoided. TVA's NEPA procedures require that the scoping process 
commence soon after a decision has been reached to prepare an EIS in 
order to provide an early and open process for determining the scope 
and for identifying the significant issues related to a proposed 
action. The scope of issues to be addressed in the draft EIS will be 
determined, in part, from written comments submitted by mail or e-mail, 
and comments presented orally or in writing at public meetings. The 
preliminary identification in this notice of reasonable alternatives 
and environmental issues is not meant to be exhaustive or final.
    The scoping process will include both interagency and public 
scoping. The public is invited to submit written comments or e-mail 
comments on the scope of this EIS no later than the date given under 
the DATES section of this notice.
    TVA conducted a public scoping meeting in Brownsville, Tennessee on 
April 19th. Brownsville is the county seat of Haywood County where the 
three candidate sites are being considered. At this meeting, using an 
open house format, TVA management and project staff presented overviews 
of the EIS process and the proposed power plant project, and answered 
questions and solicited comments on the issues that the public would 
like addressed in the EIS. This meeting was publicized through notices 
in local newspapers, by TVA press release, and in meetings between TVA 
officials and local elected officials preceding the public meetings. 
Approximately 25 persons attended this meeting.
    The agencies to be included in the interagency scoping are U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tennessee 
Department of Environment and Conservation, the Tennessee State 
Historic Preservation Officer, and other agencies as appropriate.
    After consideration of the scoping comments, TVA will further 
develop alternatives and environmental issues to be addressed in the 
EIS. Following analysis of the environmental consequences of each 
alternative, TVA will prepare a draft EIS for public review and 
comment. Notice of availability of the draft EIS will be published by 
the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register. TVA will 
solicit written comments on the draft EIS, and information about 
possible public meetings to comment on the draft EIS will be announced. 
TVA expects to release a draft EIS by December 1999 and a final EIS by 
June 2000.

    Dated: May 25, 1999.
Ruben O. Hernandez,
Vice President, Resource Stewardship.
[FR Doc. 99-13747 Filed 6-2-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-P