[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 241 (Monday, December 16, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68443-68444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-27018]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 2816-050]


North Hartland, LLC; Notice of Application Tendered for Filing 
with the Commission and Soliciting Additional Study Requests and 
Establishing Procedural Schedule for Relicensing and a Deadline For 
Submission of Final Amendments

    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-2816-050.
    c. Date filed: November 26, 2019.
    d. Applicant: North Hartland, LLC (North Hartland).
    e. Name of Project: North Hartland Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Ottauquechee River in the town of Hartland, 
Windsor County, Vermont. The project occupies 20.8 acres of land 
managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps).
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Andrew J. Locke, President, Essex Hydro 
Associates, LLC, 55 Union Street, Boston, MA 02108; Phone at (617) 367-
0032, or email at [email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Bill Connelly at (202) 502-8587, or 
[email protected].
    j. Cooperating agencies: Federal, state, local, and tribal agencies 
with jurisdiction and/or special expertise with respect to 
environmental issues that wish to cooperate in the preparation of the 
environmental document should follow the instructions for filing such 
requests described in item l below. Cooperating agencies should note 
the Commission's policy that agencies that cooperate in the preparation 
of the environmental document cannot also intervene. See 94 FERC ] 
61,076 (2001).
    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 an adequate factual basis for a complete analysis of the 
application on its merit, the resource agency, Indian Tribe, or person 
must file a request for a study with the Commission not later than 60 
days from the date of filing of the application, and serve a copy of 
the request on the applicant.
    l. Deadline for filing additional study requests and requests for 
cooperating agency status: January 25, 2020.
    The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file 
additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status 
using the Commission's eFiling system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp. For assistance, please contact FERC Online

[[Page 68444]]

Support at [email protected], (866) 208-3676 (toll free), or 
(202) 502-8659 (TTY). In lieu of electronic filing, please send a paper 
copy to: Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First 
Street NE, Washington, DC 20426. The first page of any filing should 
include docket number P-2816-050.
    m. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    n. Project Description: The existing North Hartland Hydroelectric 
Project consists of: (1) A steel-lined intake structure in the Corps' 
North Hartland Dam that is equipped with 2-inch trashracks; (2) a 470-
foot-long, 12-foot-diameter steel penstock that provides flow to a 4.0-
megawatt (MW) adjustable blade, vertical shaft turbine-generator unit 
located inside of a 59-foot-long, 40-foot-wide concrete powerhouse; (3) 
a 12-foot-diameter bypass conduit that branches off of the 12-foot-
diameter penstock about 100 feet before the powerhouse, and that 
empties into a 60-foot-long concrete-lined channel through a bypass 
control gate; (4) a 30-inch-diameter steel penstock that branches off 
of the 12-foot-diamater bypass conduit about 50 feet upstream of the 
bypass control gate, and that provides flow to a 0.1375-MW fixed 
geometry, horizontal pump turbine-generator unit located on a raised 
platform outside of the southern wall of the powerhouse; (5) a 400-
foot-long, 50 to 150-foot-wide tailrace channel; (6) a transmission 
line that comprises an approximately 600-foot-long,12.5 kilovolt (kV) 
underground segment, and a 4,000-foot-long, 12.5-kV overhead segment 
that connect the generators to Green Mountain Power Corporation's Clay 
Hill Road Line 66 Transmission Project No. 12766; and (9) appurtenant 
facilities.
    The project is managed to meet daily peak electrical system demand, 
as needed using the available head and reservoir outflow from Corps' 
North Hartland dam. The current license requires North Hartland to 
release a continuous minimum flow of 23 cubic feet per second (cfs) 
from July1 through October 31, and 40 cfs during the remainder of the 
year, or the inflow to the reservoir, whichever is less, for the 
purpose of protecting and enhancing aquatic resources in the 
Ottauquechee River. The project has an average annual generation of 
approximately 13,991,990 kilowatt-hours from 2014 through 2018.
    North Hartland proposes to provide the following minimum and 
maximum flows, respectively: (1) 60 and 700 cfs, from October 1 through 
March 31; (2) 160 and 835 cfs, from April 1 through April 31; (3) 160 
and 550 cfs, from May 1 through May 31; (4) 140 and 450 cfs, from June 
1 through June 30; and (5) 60 and 300 cfs, from July 1 through 
September 30.
    o. 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 website 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. A copy is also available for inspection and 
reproduction at the town of Hartland's library, located at 153 Rt. 5, 
Hartland, VT.
    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.
    p. Procedural schedule and final amendments: The application will 
be processed according to the following preliminary schedule. Revisions 
to the schedule will be made as appropriate.

Issue Deficiency Letter (if necessary)--January 2020
Request Additional Information--January 2020
Issue Acceptance Letter--April 2020
Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments--May 2020
Request Additional Information (if necessary)--July 2020
Issue Scoping Document 2--August 2020
Issue Notice of Ready for Environmental Analysis--August 2020
Commission issues Environmental Assessment--February 2021

    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: December 10, 2019.
Kimberly D. Bose,
 Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2019-27018 Filed 12-13-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P