[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 81 (Tuesday, April 27, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22788-22789]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E4-934]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 12451-001]


SAF Hydroelectric, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an 
Environmental Assessment, Notice of Paper Scoping and Soliciting 
Scoping Comments, and Notice of Revised Schedule for Processing 
Application

April 14, 2004.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with Commission and is available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: Original major license.
    b. Project No.: 12451-001.
    c. Date Filed: January 20, 2004.
    d. Applicant: SAF Hydroelectric, LLC.
    e. Name of Project: Lower St. Anthony Falls Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Mississippi River, in the Town of Minneapolis, 
Hennepin County, Minnesota. The project affects federal lands.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Douglas A. Spaulding P.E., Spaulding 
Consultants, 1433 Utica Avenue South, Suite 162, Minneapolis, MN 55416, 
(952) 544-8133 or Robert Larson, 33 South 6th Street, Minneapolis, MN 
55402, (612) 343-2913.
    i. FERC Contact: Kim Carter at (202) 502-6486, or 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for Filing Scoping Comments: 60 days from issuance date 
of this notice.
    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 filing. 
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. After 
logging into the e-Filing system, select ``Comment on Filing'' from the 
Filing Type Selection screen and continue with the filing process.
    k. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    l. Description of Project: The proposed Lower St. Anthony Falls 
Hydroelectric Project would be located at the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers (Corps) Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and would 
utilize 5.9 acres of Corps lands. The generation turbines would be 
located in an auxiliary lock chamber adjacent to the Corps' main lock 
chamber. An auxiliary building, storage yard, and buried transmission 
line would occupy additional Corps lands. The project would operate 
according to the Corps' current operating criteria which maintains a 
constant water surface elevation of approximately 750.0 mean sea level 
in the 33.5-acre reservoir.
    The proposed project would consist of the following features: (1) 
16 turbine/generator units grouped in eight 6.2-foot-wide by 12.76-
foot-high steel modules having a total installed capacity of 8,980 
kilowatts, each module contains 2 turbine/generator sets (two 
horizontal rows of 1 unit each) installed in eight stoplog slots on the 
auxiliary lock structure; (2) trashracks located at the turbine intake; 
(3) a 200-foot-long sheet pile/concrete guide wall, located between the 
main lock and auxiliary lock, to facilitate navigation; (4) a 1,050-
foot-long, 13,800-volt buried transmission line; (3) a 21-foot by 81-
foot control building to house switchgear and controls; (4) a 20-foot 
by 30-foot project office and storage building; and (5) appurtenant 
facilities.
    The applicant estimates that the average annual generation would be 
about 57,434,000 kilowatt-hours.
    m. A Scoping Document (SD) outlining the subject areas to be 
addressed in the EA was distributed to the parties on the Commission's 
mailing list. Copies of the scoping document and application are 
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 ``eLibrary'' link. Enter the docket number, excluding the last 
three digits in the docket number field (P-12451), 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 paragraph (h) above.
    n. You may also register online at http://www.ferc.gov/esubscribenow.htm to be notified via email of new filings and issuances 
related to this or other

[[Page 22789]]

pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC Online Support.
    o. Scoping Process: Scoping is intended to advise all parties 
regarding the proposed scope of the EA and to seek additional 
information pertinent to this analysis. The Commission intends to 
prepare one Environmental Assessment (EA) on the project in accordance 
with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The EA will consider 
both site-specific and cumulative environmental effects and reasonable 
alternatives to the proposed action. Should substantive comments 
requiring re-analysis be received on the NEPA document, we would 
consider preparing a final NEPA document.
    At this time, the Commission staff does not anticipate holding 
formal public or agency scoping meetings near the project site. 
Instead, staff will conduct paper scoping.
    As part of scoping the staff will: (1) Summarize the environmental 
issues tentatively identified for analysis in the EA; (2) solicit from 
participants all available information, especially quantifiable data, 
on the resources at issue; (3) encourage comments from experts and the 
public on issues that should be analyzed in the EA, including 
viewpoints in opposition to, or in support of, the staff's preliminary 
views; (4) determine the resource issues to be addressed in the EA; and 
(5) identify those issues that require a detailed analysis, as well as 
those issues that do not require a detailed analysis.
    Consequently, interested entities are requested to file with the 
Commission any data and information concerning environmental resources 
and land uses in the project area and the project's impacts to the 
aforementioned.
    p. Procedural Schedule: The schedule for processing the Application 
has been revised as follows. Revisions to the schedule will be made if 
the Commission determines it necessary to do so:

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                 Action                           Tentative date
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Issue Scoping Document 1...............  April 2004.
Request Additional Information (if       July 2004.
 needed).
Issue Notice of Ready for Environmental  July/August 2004.
 Analysis.
Issue Notice of availability of EA.....  December 2004.
Public Comments on EA Due..............  January 2005.
Ready for Commission decision on the     April 2005.
 application.
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    Unless substantial comments are received in response to the EA, 
staff intends to prepare a single EA in this case. If substantial 
comments are received in response to the EA, a final EA will be 
prepared with the following modifications to the schedule.

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                 Action                           Tentative date
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Notice of the availability of the final  April 2005.
 EA.
Ready for Commission's decision on the   June 2005.
 application.
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Magalie R. Salas,
 Secretary.
[FR Doc. E4-934 Filed 4-26-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P