Commission staff prepared a final environmental impact statement (EIS) for Twin Lake Canal Company’s (Twin Lakes) proposed 10-megawatt (MW) Bear River Narrows Hydroelectric Project No. 12486-008. Twin Lakes used the Commission’s Integrated Licensing Process (ILP) and filed its application for an original license on November 27, 2013.
The project would be located on the main stem of the Bear River in Franklin County, Idaho, about 9 miles northeast of the city of Preston. The project would occupy 658 acres of land, 243 acres of which is federal land administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. The primary project purposes are water storage for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation.
The primary issues associated with constructing and operating the project are effects on recreational resources and access; management and maintenance of recreation sites; instream flows and water quality; loss of riverine fish, botanical, and wildlife habitat; degradation of aesthetics; and the lack of feasible on- or off-site mitigation to address these project effects.
In the Final EIS, Commission staff recommends the no action alternative (license denial) as the preferred alternative. Commission staff determined that the overall, unavoidable adverse environmental effects of licensing the project would outweigh the power and water storage benefits it would provide.