[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 200 (Wednesday, October 18, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48500-48501]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-22531]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 14581-002]


Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission and 
Establishing Procedural Schedule for Licensing and Deadline for 
Submission of Final Amendments; Turlock Irrigation District and Modesto 
Irrigation District, California

    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.
    a. Type of Application: Original Major License.
    b. Project No.: 14581-002.
    c. Date Filed: October 11, 2017.
    d. Applicant: Turlock Irrigation District and Modesto Irrigation 
District, California.
    e. Name of Project: La Grange Hydropower Project.
    f. Location: The La Grange Project is located on the Tuolumne River 
in Stanislaus and Tuolumne Counties, California. Portions of the 
project occupy public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contacts: Steve Boyd, Turlock Irrigation District, 333 
East Canal Drive, Turlock, California 95381-0949, (209) 883-8300; and 
Anna Brathwaite, Modesto Irrigation District, P.O. Box 4060, Modesto, 
CA 95352, (209) 526-7384.
    i. FERC Contact: Jim Hastreiter at (503) 552-2760 or 
[email protected].
    j. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    k. The Project Description:

La Grange Dam and Spillway

    The primary project feature is La Grange dam, a 310-foot-long, 131-
foot-high, masonry arch dam. The un-gated spillway crest of the dam is 
at elevation 296.5 feet mean sea level (msl). A slide gate in the face 
of La Grange dam can discharge about 200 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 
the Tuolumne River.

La Grange Reservoir

    La Grange reservoir extends upstream for approximately 11,352.5 
feet at a normal water surface elevation of 296.46 feet msl. The 
surface of the reservoir at the normal surface elevation is over 58 
acres and the storage capacity is over 500 acre-feet.

Intakes, Tunnels, Forebay, Canal Headgates, Powerhouse Intake

    The Modesto Irrigation District (MID) headworks, canal, and sluice 
gates are part of MID's retired irrigation canal facilities that 
currently discharge flow from the reservoir into the Tuolumne River on 
the right bank about 400 feet downstream of La Grange dam.
    The Turlock Irrigation District (TID) intake and tunnel is located 
on the left bank of the La Grange dam and spillway just upstream of the 
dam and consists of two separate structures. One structure contains two 
8-foot by 11-foot, 10-inch-high control gates driven by electric motor 
hoists. The second structure is located to the left of the first 
structure and contains a single 8-foot by 12-foot control gate. Water 
diverted at the intake control gates is conveyed to a 600-foot-long 
tunnel leading to the 110-foot-long concrete forebay for the TID non-
project Upper Main Canal. Water delivered to TID's irrigation system is 
regulated at the non-project canal headworks, consisting of six 5-foot-
wide by 8-foot-tall slide gates.
    Water delivered to the powerhouse is diverted at the west side of 
the canal through three 7.5-foot-wide by 14-foot-tall concrete intake 
bays protected by a trashrack structure. Manually operated steel gates 
are used to regulate the discharge of water through two intakes one 
leading to a 235-foot long, 5-foot-diameter penstock and the other 
leading to a 212-foot-long, 7-foot-diameter penstock. Immediately 
upstream and adjacent to the penstock intakes are two automated 5-foot-
high by 4-foot-wide sluice gates that discharge water over a steep rock 
outcrop to the tailrace channel just upstream of the powerhouse.

Powerhouse

    The 72-foot by 29-foot concrete powerhouse is located approximately 
0.2 miles downstream of La Grange dam on the left bank of the Tuolumne 
River. The powerhouse contains two Francis turbine-generator units with 
a maximum capacity of 4.9 megawatts. One turbine unit has a rated 
output of 1,650 horsepower (hp) at 140 cfs and 115 feet of net head and 
the other with a rated output of 4,950 hp at 440 cfs and 115 feet of 
net head. The powerhouse produces an average annual generation of 
19,638 megawatt-hours.
    l. Locations of the Application: 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, please contact FERC Online Support at 
[email protected], (866) 208-3676 (toll free), or (202) 502-
8659 (TTY). A copy is also available for inspection and reproduction at 
the address in item (h) above.
    m. You may also register online at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/esubscription.asp to be notified via email of new filings and issuances 
related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support.
    n. Procedural Schedule:
    The application will be processed according to the following 
preliminary Hydro Licensing Schedule. Revisions to the schedule may be 
made as appropriate.

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                 Milestone                           Target date
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Notice of Acceptance/Notice of Ready for     October 2017.
 Environmental Analysis.
Filing of recommendations, preliminary       December 2017.
 terms and conditions, and fishway
 prescriptions.

[[Page 48501]]

 
Commission issues Draft Environmental        July 2018.
 Impact Statement (EIS).
Comments on Draft EIS......................  September 2018.
Modified Terms and Conditions..............  November 2018.
Commission Issues Final EIS................  February 2019.
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    o. 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.

    Dated: October 12, 2017.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-22531 Filed 10-17-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P