Notice2021-11714
Withdrawal of Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Monterey Bay Regional Water Project Desalination Facility
Primary source
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Published
June 4, 2021
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is issuing this notice to advise Federal, state, and local government agencies and the public that it is withdrawing its Notice of Intent to prepare a draft environmental impact statement for the proposed action to construct and operate a seawater reverse osmosis desalination facility and co-located seawater-cooled 150-megawatt computer data center campus project at Moss Landing, Monterey County, California. NOAA is terminating the review of this project under the National Environmental Policy Act because the proposed project scope has changed significantly.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 106 (Friday, June 4, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 106 (Friday, June 4, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Page 30034]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-11714]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Withdrawal of Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement for Monterey Bay Regional Water Project Desalination Facility
AGENCY: Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), National Ocean
Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Department of Commerce (DOC).
ACTION: Withdrawal of notice of intent to prepare an environmental
impact statement.
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SUMMARY: NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is issuing this
notice to advise Federal, state, and local government agencies and the
public that it is withdrawing its Notice of Intent to prepare a draft
environmental impact statement for the proposed action to construct and
operate a seawater reverse osmosis desalination facility and co-located
seawater-cooled 150-megawatt computer data center campus project at
Moss Landing, Monterey County, California. NOAA is terminating the
review of this project under the National Environmental Policy Act
because the proposed project scope has changed significantly.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karen Grimmer, Resource Protection
Coordinator, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6e050f1c0b0040091c0703030b1c2e00010f0f40090118"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6902081b0c07470e1b0004040c1b2907060808470e061f">[email protected]</span></a>, or by mail at 99 Pacific Street, Suite 455A,
Monterey, California 93940.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NOAA published a Notice of Intent (NOI) in
the Federal Register on June 1, 2015 (80 FR 31022), to prepare a joint
environmental impact report (EIR)/environmental impact statement (EIS)
with the California State Lands Commission (CSLC) in accordance with
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California
Environmental Quality Act. The joint EIR/EIS would have analyzed the
impacts on the human environment resulting from DeepWater Desal's
construction and operation of a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO)
desalination facility and co-located seawater-cooled 150-megawatt
computer data center campus project (Project) at Moss Landing, Monterey
County, California.
DeepWater Desal submitted an application for permit approval to
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to construct and operate a SWRO
desalination facility capable of producing 25,000 acre-feet per year of
potable water and a co-located seawater-cooled computer data center
campus on a 110-acre site located approximately 1.5 miles east of Moss
Landing. Additional details about the Project are included in the NOI
dated June 1, 2015. NOAA solicited public input on the scope of the
analysis through a public comment period on the NOI from June 1, 2015,
to July 1, 2015. NOAA received six comments in response to the notice,
which are publicly available on <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a> under docket
NOAA-NOS-2015-0069. NOAA and CSLC held a joint public scoping meeting
for the project on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, and six commenters provided
testimony.
NOAA is terminating the NEPA process and closing the Project's
permit application because the permit applicant notified NOAA in May
2020 that the primary scope of the Project changed from desalination to
land-based aquaculture. NOAA finds that the scope of the Project has
changed significantly since publication of the 2015 NOI and the scoping
process completed in 2015 is no longer relevant. Therefore, NOAA is
withdrawing the NOI to prepare an EIS for this Project. Should NOAA
receive a new permit application, NOAA will determine at that time what
level of NEPA review is required for the project.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1431 et seq.; 40 CFR 1500-1508; Companion
Manual for NOAA Administrative Order 216-6A, 82 FR 4306.
John Armor,
Director, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries National Ocean Service,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
[FR Doc. 2021-11714 Filed 6-3-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-NK-P
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