[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 236 (Monday, December 8, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74480-74481]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-28923]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 12775-001]


City of Spearfish, SD; Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visit 
and Soliciting Scoping Comments

December 2, 2008.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.
    a. Type of Application: Major Project.
    b. Project No.: P-12775-001.
    c. Date filed: September 10, 2008.
    d. Applicant: City of Spearfish, South Dakota.
    e. Name of Project: Spearfish Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On Spearfish Creek in Lawrence County, South Dakota. 
The project occupies about 57.3 acres of United States lands within the 
Black Hills National Forest administered by the U.S. Forest Service.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Ms. Cheryl Johnson, Public Works 
Administrator, City of Spearfish, 625 Fifth Street, Spearfish, SD 
57783; (605) 642-1333; or e-mail at [email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Steve Hocking at (202) 502-8753; or e-mail at 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: February 13, 2009.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: 
Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedures 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.
    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 Spearfish Project consists of: (1) A 130-foot-long, 
4-foot-high concrete gravity dam; (2) a 0.32-acre reservoir; (3) a 
gatehouse next to the dam that contains four 2-foot-high, 4-foot-wide 
steel intake gates; (4) a 4.5-mile-long, 6.5-foot-wide, 9-foot-high 
concrete-lined rock tunnel; (5) a forebay pond; (6) two 1,200-foot-
long, 48-inch diameter, wood stave pipelines; (7) four 36-inch-
diameter, 54-foot-high standpipe surge towers; (8) two 4,700-foot-long, 
30-to 34-inch diameter steel penstocks; (9) a reinforced concrete 
powerhouse containing two Pelton turbines and two, 2,000-kilowatt 
generators; and (10) appurtenant facilities.
    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 ``eLibrary'' 
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 (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.
    You may also register online at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/esubscription.asp to be notified via e-mail of new filings and 
issuances related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, 
contact FERC Online Support.
    n. Scoping Process
    The Commission intends to prepare a single (no draft) environmental 
assessment (EA) for 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

    Commission staff will conduct one agency scoping meeting and one 
public meeting. The agency scoping meeting will focus on resource 
agency and non-governmental organization (NGO) concerns, while the 
public scoping meeting is primarily for public input. 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 and Time: January 13, 2009, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
    Location: City of Spearfish Council Center, 625 Fifth Street, 
Spearfish, SD 57783.

Daytime Scoping Meeting

    Date and Time: January 14, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    Location: City of Spearfish Council Center, 625 Fifth Street, 
Spearfish, SD 57783.
    Copies of the Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the subject areas to 
be addressed in the EA were distributed to the parties on the 
Commission's mailing list for this project. Copes of SD1 will be 
available at the scoping meeting or may be viewed on the Web at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``eLibrary'' link (see item m above).

Site Visit

    Commission staff will hold a site visit to the project on January 
13, 2009, from 9 a.m. to about 12 noon. Anyone wishing to attend the 
site visit should meet at the Spearfish Project powerhouse at 9 a.m. 
located at 520 S. Canyon, Spearfish, South Dakota 57783. We will drive 
to the dam and stop along the way to view Spearfish Creek; drive to the 
project's forebay and standpipe facilities; then drive back to the 
project's powerhouse and take a tour of the powerhouse. All 
participants are responsible for their own transportation.
    The site visit scheduled for January 13, 2009, is weather 
dependent. If the site visit is cancelled, notice will be placed on the 
Commission's January 13, 2009, calendar which can be found on the 
Commission's Web site (http://www.ferc.gov). Please check the 
Commission's January 13, 2009, calendar before leaving in the morning 
to attend the site visit.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the EA; (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 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.

Procedures

    Scoping meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and will become 
part of

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the Commission's formal record for this proceeding.
    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.

Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
 [FR Doc. E8-28923 Filed 12-5-08; 8:45 am]
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