[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 222 (Thursday, November 16, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69301-69302]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-29350]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visits and Soliciting Scoping 
Comments

November 9, 2000.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: A New Major License.
    b. Project Nos.: 2597-018 and 2576-023.
    c. Date filed: August 31, 1999.
    d. Applicant: Northeast Generation Company.
    e. Names of Projects: Falls Village Project and Housatonic Project 
which are filed as a single application under the designation ``The 
Housatonic River Project.''
    f. Location: On the Housatonic River, near the towns of Canaan, 
North Canaan, Salisbury, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, Kent, 
Monroe, Newtown, New Fairfield, New Milford, Oxford, Roxbury Sherman 
and Southbury, in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties, 
Connecticut. Approximately 74 acres of federal land are within project 
boundaries.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 USC 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Mr. Robert A. Gates, Project Manager, 
Northeast Generating Services, 143 West Street, New Milford, 
Connecticut 06776 (860) 354-8840. [email protected]
    i. FERC Contact: James T. Griffin, (202) 219-2799.
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: 60 days from the issuance 
of this Notice.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: 
David P. Boergers, Secretary, Federal Agency Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426. Comments and protests may be 
filed electronically via the internet in lieu of paper. See, 18 CFR 
385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the Commission's web site 
at http://www.ferc.fed.us/efi/doorbell.htm.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
intervenors filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of 
that document on each person whose name appears on the official service 
list for the project. Further, if an intervenor files comments or 
documents with the Commission relating to the merits of an issue that 
may affect the responsibilities of a particular resource agency, they 
must also serve a copy of the document on that resource agency.
    k. Status of environmental analysis: This application is not ready 
for environmental analysis at this time.
    l. Description of the projects: 
    The two projects represented in the Housatonic River Project 
Application comprise five developments: the Falls Village, Bulls 
Bridge, Shepaug, Rocky River and Stevenson developments are located on 
the Housatonic River, 76.2 miles, 52.9 miles, 44.1 miles, 30.0 and 19.3 
miles respectively from its mouth.
    1. The Falls Village development consists of the following existing 
facilities: (a) A 300-foot-long, 14-foot-high concrete gravity dam with 
two spillways having a combined overflow length of approximately 280 
feet, and a crest elevation of 631.5 feet National Geodetic Vertical 
Distance (NGVD); (b) an impoundment 3.8 miles long containing 1,135 
acre-feet when at elevation 633.2 feet NGVD; (c) a dam-integral 
powerhouse with a total installed capacity of 9.0 megawatts (MW) 
producing approximately 39,733,500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually; and 
(d) a switch yard connected to the project via a 69 kilovolt (kV) 
interconnected transmission line.
    2. The Bulls Bridge development consists of: (a) A 203-foot-long, 
24-foot-high stone and concrete gravity dam with a dam crest of 354 
feet NGVD; (b) a two-mile-long power canal; (c) a 156-foot-long, 17-
foot-high rock fill gravity weir dam; (d) a 2.25-mile-long reservoir 
with an 1,800 acre-feet storage capacity and a surface area of 
approximately 120 acres at normal elevation of 354 feet NGVD; (e) a 
powerhouse with a capacity of 7.2 MW, developing an average of 
44,079,300 kWh annually; and (f) a 69 kV line which connects the 
development to the Rocky River development.
    3. The Rocky River Pumped Storage development consists of: (a) A 
952-foot-long earth-filled core wall dam, a 2,500-foot-long earthen 
canal dike that forms the north bank of the power canal to the intake 
structure, two earthen and one concrete Lanesville dike, Recreation 
Point and Danbury dikes, a dam crest elevation averaging 440.1 feet 
NGVD, and an intake canal 3,190 feet in length; (b) the seven mile-long 
Candlewood

[[Page 69302]]

Lake reservoir with a 5,610 acre impoundment at 428.1 feet NGVD; (c) a 
powerhouse with a rated capacity of 31,000 kW and averaging 14,238,100 
kWh production per year; and (d) a development connection to the 
applicant's transmission system via the Rocky River-Carmel Hill 1813 
line, the Rocky River-Bull Bridge 1555 line and the Rocky River-West 
Brookfield 1618 line.
    4. The Shepaug development consists of: (a) A 1412-foot, bedrock-
anchored, concrete gravity dam having a crest elevation of 205.3 feet 
NGVD; (b) an impoundment, at maximum operational elevation level of 
198.3 feet NGVD, measuring 1,870 acres; (c) a powerhouse with a rated 
capacity of 37,200 kW, with an average annual production of 129,663,300 
kWh and (d) a development connection to the applicant's transmission 
system via the Shepaug-Bates 1622 line and the Shepaug-Stony-Hill-West 
Brookfield 1887 line.
    5. The Stevenson Development consists of: (a) A 1,250-foot, 
bedrock-anchored, concrete gravity dam with a crest elevation of 98.3 
feet NGVD, 696 feet of spillway and an integral powerhouse; (b) an 
impoundment having a surface area measuring 1,063 acres at 101.3 feet 
NGVD, with a storage volume of 2,650 acre-feet; (c) a powerhouse with a 
rated capacity of 30,500 kW, with an average annual production of 
92,970,270 kWh; and (d) a development connection to the applicant's 
transmission system via several 115-kV transmission lines.
    m. Locations of the application: A copy of the application is 
available for inspection and reproduction at the Commission's Public 
Reference Room, located at 888 First Street, NE, Room 2A, Washington, 
D.C. 20246, or by calling (202) 208-1371. This filing may be viewed on 
the web at http://www.ferc.fed.us/online/rims.htm (call 202-208-2222 
for assistance). A copy is also available for inspection and 
reproduction at the address in item h above.
    n. Scoping Process: The Commission intends to prepare an 
Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed relicensing of the Falls 
Village Project (FERC No. 2597-018) and Housatonic Project (FERC No. 
2576-023), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. 
The EA will consider both site-specific and cumulative environmental 
impacts and reasonable alternatives to the proposed actions.
Scoping Meetings
    The Commission will hold three scoping meetings, one in the daytime 
and two in the evening, to help us identify the scope of issues to be 
addressed in the EA.
    The daytime scoping meeting will focus on resource agency concerns, 
while the evening scoping meetings are primarily for public concerns. 
All interested individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to 
attend either or both meetings, and to assist the staff in identifying 
the scope of the environmental issues that should be analyzed in the 
EA. The times and locations of these meetings are as follows:
Evening Meetings
Monday, December 4, 2000, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., Lee Kellogg Elementary 
School, Multipurpose Room, 47 Main Street, Falls Village, CT 06031
Wednesday, December 6, 2000, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., Northville Elementary 
School Cafeteria, 22 Hipp Road, New Milford, CT 06776
Afternoon Meeting
Thursday, December 7, 2000, 1:00--3:00 p.m., First South Congregational 
Church, Stanley Room (Second Floor), 277 Main St., Hartford, CT 06106

    To help focus discussions, we will distribute to parties on the 
Commission's mailing list a Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the 
subject areas to be addressed in the EA. Copies of the SD1 will also be 
available at the scoping meetings.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues that the Commission staff tentatively has 
identified for analysis in the EA; (2) take statements from experts and 
the public on issues that should be analyzed in the EA, including 
viewpoints in opposition to, or in support of, those issues identified 
by the Commission staff; (3) identify those issues that require a 
detailed analysis, as well as those issues that do not require a 
detailed analysis; and (4) solicit all available information, 
especially quantifiable data, on the resources at issue;
    The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and will become 
part of the formal record of the Commission's proceeding on the 
project. Individuals presenting statements at the meeting will be asked 
to sign in before the meeting starts and to identify themselves clearly 
for the record.
    Individuals, organizations, and agencies are encouraged to attend 
the meeting and to assist the staff in defining and clarifying the 
issues to be addressed in the EA.

Site Visit

    The applicant and the Commission staff will conduct a project site 
visit in two segments on December 5th and 6th, 2000. The first day we 
will meet at 8:30 a.m. the Northeast Generation Services--CT Hydro 
Office parking lot in New Milford and travel by bus to the facilities 
in the upper part of the study area, returning to New Milford at about 
4:00 p.m. The second day we will meet at the same location and time but 
will proceed (again by bus) to the southern facilities, completing the 
visit in New Milford at about 4:00 p.m. If you would like to attend one 
or both days of the site visit, please call (Robert Gates of Northeast 
Generation Services), no later than December 1, 2000, at (860)354-8840 
or at gatesr @nu.com.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 00-29350 Filed 11-15-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M