The environmental and engineering evaluations have progressed well in 2008 with the goal of filing the Major Facility Siting Act (MFSA application) with the Montana Department of Environtmental Quality (DEQ) and an environmental report with federal agencies in July of 2008.
The BLM was designated as the lead federal agency for NEPA compliance and assigned a national project manager. A Memorandum of Understanding between state and federal agencies is being developed to identify roles and responsibilities of all parties for the EIS process.
NorthWestern Energy has identified 3 to 5 end-to-end alternative routes for comparison in the MFSA/ER. Data summaries have been prepared to support selecting the preferred and alternative routes in May. NorthWestern Energy’s preferred route will be characterized as the Proposed Action in the MFSA/ER document. Results of these studies and route comparisons will be the subject of the major findings of this document.
The MFSA and ER documents will be filed with the Montana DEQ and federal agencies in June/July of 2008. Additional briefings with county commissioners and other elected officials in Montana and Idaho will be held to discuss the projects preferred and alternate routes once they have been scheduled for June and July 2008.
NorthWestern Energy will work with the state and federal agencies to select a third-party consultant to review the MFSA and ER independently and to prepare both the draft and final EIS. A project schedule regarding the EIS process will be developed by the agencies. EIS tasks are being identified and are expected to begin during the spring/summer of 2008.
Soon after the MFSA and ER are filed with the agencies listed in the first bulleted item, a Notice of Intent will be published by the BLM in the Federal Register to announce public scoping meetings and the intent of the federal agencies to prepare an EIS. Local notices will also be published for the same reason by Montana DEQ to meet their notification requirements for the public scoping meetings and the intent to jointly prepare the EIS.
NorthWestern Energy will participate with the agencies for public and agency meetings, elected official briefings, preparation and distribution of newsletters and fact sheets, and website updates. Engineering studies are being completed to support the MFSA and ER and will continue throughout the EIS process.