[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 98 (Wednesday, May 20, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30693-30694]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10842]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 4451-024]


Green Mountain Power Corporation, City of Somersworth, New 
Hampshire; 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: Subsequent Minor License.
    b. Project No.: P-4451-024.
    c. Date filed: April 30, 2020.
    d. Applicant: Green Mountain Power and the City of Somersworth, New 
Hampshire.
    e. Name of Project: Lower Great Falls Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Salmon Falls River in Strafford County, New 
Hampshire, and York County, Maine. No federal lands are occupied by the 
project works or located within the project boundary.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Mr. John Greenan, Green Mountain Power 
Corporation, 1252 Post Road, Rutland, VT 05701; Phone at (802) 770-
2195, or email at [email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Amanda Gill at (202) 502-6773, 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 70 
days from the date of filing of the application, and

[[Page 30694]]

serve a copy of the request on the applicant.
    l. Deadline for filing additional study requests and requests for 
cooperating agency status: July 9, 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 Support 
at [email protected], (866) 208-3676 (toll free), or (202) 
502-8659 (TTY).
    m. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    n. Project Description: The existing Lower Great Falls 
Hydroelectric Project consists of: (1) A 297-foot-long, 32-foot-high 
stone masonry and concrete dam that includes the following sections: 
(a) A 176-foot-long spillway section with a crest elevation of 102.37 
feet National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD) and 4-foot-high 
flashboards at an elevation of 106.37 feet NGVD at the top of the 
flashboards; (b) a 50-foot-long left abutment section; and (c) a 71-
foot-long right abutment section; (2) a 32-acre impoundment with a 
normal elevation of 106.37 feet NGVD; (3) a 40.5-foot-wide, 20-foot-
high intake structure with four 5-foot-wide, 10.5-foot-high steel frame 
gates and a trashrack with 2-inch bar spacing; (4) two steel penstocks 
that include: (a) An 8.5-foot-diameter, 120-foot-long left penstock 
that bifurcates into a 5.3-foot-diameter, 85-foot-long section and a 
7.6-foot-diameter, 85-foot-long section; and (b) an 8.5-foot-diameter, 
140-foot-long right penstock that bifurcates into a 7-foot-diameter, 
85-foot-long section and a 7.6-foot-diameter, 85-foot-long section; (5) 
a 46-foot-long, 30-foot-wide concrete and brick powerhouse with four 
Francis turbine-generator units with a total capacity of 1.28 megawatt 
(MW); (6) a 55-foot-long, 30-foot-wide tailrace; (7) a 260-foot-long 
underground transmission line that delivers power to a 4.16-kilovolt 
distribution line; and (8) appurtenant facilities. The project creates 
a 250-foot-long bypassed reach of the Salmon Falls River between the 
dam and the downstream end of the tailrace.
    The project operates as a run-of-river (ROR) facility with no 
storage or flood control capacity. The project impoundment is 
maintained at a flashboard crest elevation of 106.37 feet NGVD. The 
current license requires the project to maintain a continuous minimum 
flow of 6.05 cubic feet per second (cfs) or inflow, whichever is less, 
to the bypassed reach for the purpose of protecting and enhancing 
aquatic resources in the Salmon Falls River. The average annual 
generation production of the project was 3,916,825 kilowatt-hours from 
2005 through 2018.
    The applicant proposes to: (1) Continue operating the project in a 
ROR mode; (2) provide a minimum flow of 30 cfs or inflow, whichever is 
less, to the bypassed reach; (3) install an eel ramp for upstream eel 
passage at the project; (4) implement targeted nighttime turbine 
shutdowns to protect eels during downstream passage; (5) install a 
downstream fish passage structure for eels and other fish species.
    o. In addition to publishing the full text of this notice in the 
Federal Register, the Commission provides all interested persons an 
opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this notice, as well 
as other documents in the proceeding (e.g., license application) via 
the internet through the Commission's Home Page (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 (P-
4451). At this time, the Commission has suspended access to the 
Commission's Public Reference Room due to the proclamation declaring a 
National Emergency concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) 
issued by the President on March 13, 2020. For assistance, contact FERC 
at [email protected] or call toll-free, (866) 208-3676 or 
(202) 502-8659 (TTY).
    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)--July 2020
Request Additional Information--July 2020
Issue Acceptance Letter--October 2020
Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments--November 2020
Request Additional Information (if necessary)--January 2021
Issue Scoping Document 2--February 2021
Issue Notice of Ready for Environmental Analysis--February 2021
Commission issues Environmental Assessment--August 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.

Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-10842 Filed 5-19-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P