LAWRENCE COUNTY – The Tennessee Valley Authority is asking for public input on potential impacts of a proposed TVA developed solar facility in Lawrence County. The proposed North Alabama utility scale solar project would encompass approximately 3,000 acres.
TVA intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement to consider the potential impacts of various alternatives. The first step in that process is to request public input concerning both the scope of the EIS and environmental issues that should be addressed as part of this EIS. Documents related to this scoping activity, as well as an opportunity to provide comment, can be found online at www.tva.com/nepa.
The purpose of this EIS is to address the potential environmental effects associated with building, operating, and maintaining the solar facility. Evaluation of potential environmental impacts to these resources will include, but not be limited to, water quality, air quality, soil erosion, floodplains, aquatic and terrestrial ecology, threatened and endangered species, botany, wetlands, visual resources, transportation, safety, land use, historic and archaeological resources, recreation, geology, solid and hazardous waste, and socioeconomic and environmental justice issues.
Comments on the potential scope of the EIS must be received Feb. 28, 2020, and can be emailed to esmith14@tva.gov or mailed to Elizabeth Smith, NEPA Specialist, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 W. Summit Hill Drive, WT 11B-L, Knoxville, TN 37902. All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the project administrative record and will be available for public inspection.
Media Release/Kathy Hodges/TVA Public Relations, Knoxville
