[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 131 (Wednesday, July 9, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40922-40923]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-17292]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment and 
Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visit and Soliciting Scoping 
Comments

July 1, 2003.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with Commission and is available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: New Major License.
    b. Project No.: 382-026.
    c. Date filed: February 26, 2003.
    d. Applicant: Southern California Edison Company.
    e. Name of Project: Borel Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Kern River near the town of Bodfish, Kern 
County, California. The canal intake for the project is located on 
approximately 188 acres of Sequoia National Forest Service lands.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C.Sec. Sec.  
791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Mr. Nino J. Mascolo, Senior Attorney, 
Southern California Edison Co., 2244 Walnut Grove Avenue, P.O. Box 800, 
Rosemead, California 91770.
    i. FERC Contact: Allison Arnold at (202)502-6346 or 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: September 5, 2003.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: 
Magalie R. Salas, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
interveners filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of 
that document on each person on the official service list for the 
project. Further, if an intervener 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.
    Scoping comments may be filed electronically via the Internet in 
lieu of paper. The Commission strongly encourages electronic filings. 
See 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the Commission's 
Web site ( http://www.ferc.gov ) under the ``e-Filing'' link.
    k. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    l. The existing Borel Hydroelectric Project (Project) consists of: 
(1) A 158-foot long, 4-foot-high concrete diversion dam with fishway; 
(2) a 61-foot-long intake structure with three 10-by 10-foot radial 
gates; (3) a canal inlet structure consisting of a canal intake, trash 
racks, and a sluice gate; (4) a flowline with a combined total length 
of 1,985-feet of tunnel, 1,651-feet of steel Lennon flume, 3,683-feet 
of steel siphon, and 51,835-feet of concrete-lined canal; (5) four 
steel penstock, penstocks 1 and 2 are 526-feet-long and 565-feet-long, 
respectively with varying diameters between 42 and 60 inches, penstocks 
3 and 4 each have a 60-inch-diameter and extend 622-feet at which point 
they wye together to form a single 84-inch-diameter, 94-foot-long 
penstock; (6) a powerhouse with two 3,000 kW generators and a 6,000kW 
generator for a total installed capacity of 12,000 kW or 12 MW; and (7) 
other appurtenant facilities. The Project has no storage capability and 
relies on water releases from Lake Isabella made by the U.S. Army Corp 
of Engineers.
    m. A copy of the application is available for review at the 
Commission in the Public Reference Room or may be viewed on the 
Commission's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``FERRIS'' link. 
Enter the docket number excluding the last three digits in the docket 
number field to access the document. For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support at [email protected] or toll-free at 1-866-208-
3676, or for TTY, (202) 502-8659. 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) 
on the project 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 
action.

Scoping Meetings

    FERC staff will conduct one evening meeting and one daytime scoping 
meeting. The evening scoping meeting is primarily for public input, 
while the daytime scoping meeting will focus on resource agency and 
non-governmental organization (NGO) concerns. All interested 
individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to attend one or 
both of the 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 Scoping Meeting

    Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2003.
    Time: 6:30 p.m.
    Place: Woodrow Wallace Elementary School.
    Address: 3240 Erskine Creek Road, Lake Isabella, CA.

Daytime Scoping Meeting

    Date: Thursday, August 7, 2003.
    Time: 10 a.m.
    Place: U.S. Forest Service, Cannell Meadow District Office.
    Address: 105 Whitney Road, Kernville, CA 93238.
    Copies of the Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the subject areas to 
be addressed in the EA are being distributed to the parties on the 
Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SD1 will be available at the 
scoping meeting or may be viewed on the web at http://www.ferc.gov 
using the ``FERRIS'' link (see item m above).

Site Visit

    Due to the logistics involved in traveling to some project 
locations, there is a need to know the number of

[[Page 40923]]

attendees in advance. All individuals planning to attend need to call 
Allison Arnold, FERC Project Coordinator, at (202) 502-6346, no later 
than Thursday, July 31, 2003.
    FERC staff and the Applicants will conduct a one-day project site 
visit on August 6, 2003, beginning at 1 p.m.. All interested 
individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to attend. All 
participants should meet at the Woodrow Wallace Elementary School 
located at 3240 Erskine Creek Road, Lake Isabella, CA by 1 p.m. on 
August 6, 2003 for the site visit. All participants are responsible for 
their own transportation, although we will try to carpool.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the EIS; 
(2) solicit from the meeting participants all available information, 
especially quantifiable data, on the resources at issue; (3) encourage 
statements from experts and the public on issues that should be 
analyzed in the EIS, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in 
support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource 
issues to be addressed in the EIS; and (5) identify those issues that 
require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that do not 
require a detailed analysis.

Procedures

    The meetings are recorded by a stenographer and become part of the 
formal record of the Commission proceeding on the project.
    Individuals, organizations, and agencies with environmental 
expertise and concerns are encouraged to attend the meeting and to 
assist the staff in defining and clarifying the issues to be addressed 
in the EA.

Magalie R. Salas,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 03-17292 Filed 7-8-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P