Final Environmental Assessment and
Finding of No Significant Impact

Auction Sale of Johnson City Customer Service Center

TVA proposes to sell its Customer Service Center (CSC) in Johnson City, Tennessee, at public auction for fair market value. The CSC is approximately 40 years old and is now functionally obsolete. TVA currently houses its area transmission line maintenance crews and equipment at the site along with associated offices, including those for staff that assist TVA distributor customers in the area.

The existing facility does not meet federal requirements under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to reduce energy use. It does not meet TVA’s current business needs, including housing at one location many of TVA’s business units with offices in the Tri-Cities area. Also, since the facility was built in 1964, the area surrounding the CSC has become more developed and is no longer a suitable location for TVA’s operations.

As a consequence of the sale, TVA expects to relocate many of its offices in the Tri-Cities area to one central facility. TVA previously considered constructing a new CSC at a greenfield site in the Johnson City area, but this is no longer the preferred course of action. TVA is now considering relocating to an existing facility at a location that is more suitable than its current location and renovating that existing facility to the extent necessary to accommodate TVA’s mixed office and quasi-industrial operations.

At this time TVA has not determined where to locate the new CSC but is searching for suitable sites that would meet its operational requirements and are cost-effective. The terms of sale of the property include a provision for TVA to enter into a lease agreement with the successful purchaser that allows TVA to remain on the site for up to five years until it relocates its operations. TVA expects that the site of the CSC will probably be redeveloped for retail and other commercial uses.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, TVA has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) on the proposed auction sale. A Draft EA was made available to the public, and comments were received between November 26 and December 15, 2003. A public meeting was also held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Johnson City on December 11, 2003 to receive comments. Following the comment period, TVA prepared a Final EA, which contains an appendix with a summary of the comments received and TVA’s responses. Based on the Final EA, TVA issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) announcing its decision to auction the CSC.

Documents

The complete text of the final EA is available in the following document (PDF files, require Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Final Environmental Assessment (1.2 mb, PDF file)

Appendices (492 kb, PDF file)
Appendix A:   FONSI for previous proposal to build new CSC
Appendix B:   FONSI for previous proposal to sell permanent easement over the site of the current CSC
Appendix C:   Summary of comments and responses
Appendix D:   Scenic value criteria used in evaluating visual impacts

Finding of No Significant Impact (56 kb, PDF file)

For more information

Printed copies of the Final Environmental Assessment, including the appendices, and the Finding of No Significant Impact are available for viewing at the Johnson City public library.

To request a printed copy, contact:

Peter K. Scheffler, NEPA Specialist
Environmental Policy and Planning
Tennessee Valley Authority
400 West Summit Hill Dr., WT 8C
Knoxville, TN 37902-1499
865-632-6840
E-mail: pkscheffler@tva.gov