[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 135 (Thursday, July 15, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42437-42438]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E4-1572]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 2710-035]


PPL Maine, LLC; Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With 
the Commission, Soliciting Additional Study Requests, Waiving Three 
Stage Consultation, and Establishing an Expedited Schedule for 
Relicensing and Deadline for Submission of Final Amendments

July 9, 2004.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.
    a. Type of Application: New major license.
    b. Project No.: P-2710-035.
    c. Date filed: June 25, 2004.
    d. Applicant: PPL Maine, LLC.
    e. Name of Project: Orono Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Stillwater Branch of the Penobscot River, near 
the town of Buxton, Penobscot County, Maine. This project does not 
occupy Federal lands.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)--825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Mr. Scott Hall, PPL Maine, LLC, Davenport 
Street, PO Box 276, Milford, Maine 04461, (207) 827-5364.
    i. FERC Contact: Ed Lee, [email protected], (202) 502-6082.
    j. Cooperating Agencies: We are asking Federal, State, and local 
agencies and Indian tribes with jurisdiction and/or special expertise 
with respect to environmental issues to cooperate with us in the 
preparation of the environmental document. Agencies who would like to 
request cooperating status should follow the instructions for filing 
comments described in item k below.
    k. Pursuant to section 4.32(b)(7) of 18 CFR of the Commission's 
regulations, if any resource agency, Indian tribe, or person believes 
that an additional scientific study should be conducted in order to 
form a factual basis for complete analysis of the application on its 
merits, the resource agency, Indian tribe, or person must file a 
request for the study with the Commission no later than 60 days from 
the application filing date, and serve a copy of the request on the 
applicant.
    l. Deadline for filing additional study requests and requests for 
cooperating agency status: August 24, 2004.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filled with: 
Magalie R. Salas, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426
    The Commission's Rules of Practice require all intervenors 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 
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.
    Additional study requests 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

[[Page 42438]]

Filing Type Selection screen and continue with the filing process.''
    m. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    n. Project Description: The Orono Hydroelectric Project consists of 
the following facilities: (1) The existing 1,174-foot-long by 15-foot-
high dam with 2.4-foot-high flashboards; (2) a 2.3-mile-long reservoir, 
which has a surface area of 175 acres at the normal full pond elevation 
of 72.4 feet above mean sea level; (3) three new 10-foot-diameter 
penstocks; (4) a new restored powerhouse containing four generating 
units with total installed generating capacity of 2.3 megawatts (MW); 
and (4) appurtenant facilities. The restored project would have an 
average annual generation of 17,821 megawatt-hours. The dam and 
existing project facilities are owned by the applicant.
    o. A copy of the application is on file with the Commission and is 
available for public inspection. This filing may also be viewed on the 
Web at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``eLibrary'' link. Enter the 
docket number, excluding the last three digits in the docket number 
filed to access the documents. For assistance, please contact FERC 
Online Support at [email protected] or toll free at (866) 208-
3676 or for TTY, contact (202) 502-8659. A copy is also available for 
inspection and reproduction at the address in item h above.
    p. 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 pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support.
    q. With this notice, we are initiating consultation with the Maine 
State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), as required by Sec.  106, 
National Historic Preservation Act, and the regulations of the Advisory 
Council on Historic Preservation, 36 CFR part 800.4.
    r. Procedural Schedule and Final Amendments: We intend to waive the 
standard 3-stage consultation process (18 CFR 4.38), as requested by 
the applicant and agencies, because this application is filed in 
accordance with the ``Lower Penobscot River Multiparty Settlement 
Agreement''. We also intend to substitute the pre-filing consultation 
process that has occurred on this project for our standard National 
Environmental Policy Act scoping process. The application will be 
processed according to the following schedule. Commission staff propose 
to issue a single environmental assessment rather than issue a draft 
and final EA. Revisions to the schedule will be made as appropriate.

Issue Acceptance or Deficiency Letter--September 2004
Notice that application is ready for environmental analysis--
September 2004
Notice of the availability of the EA--November 2004
Ready for Commission decision on the application--December 2004

    Final amendments to the application must be filed with the 
Commission no later than 30 days from the issuance date of the notice 
of ready for environmental analysis.

Magalie R. Salas,
Secretary.
 [FR Doc. E4-1572 Filed 7-14-04; 8:45 am]
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