[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 149 (Monday, August 3, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46619-46620]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-16811]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 77-298; Project No. 77-285]


NOI Parties; Notice Soliciting Scoping Comments

    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with Commission and is available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: Major, new license.
    b. Project Nos.: P-77-298; P-77-285.
    c. Date filed: June 28, 2019.
    d. Applicant: NOI Parties (the NOI Parties are proxies for a new 
Regional Entity that ultimately would be the license applicant for the 
project. The Regional Entity has not yet been formed under California 
law, but once formed, the Regional Entity would supplant the NOI 
Parties in this Integrated Licensing Process [ILP] proceeding. The NOI 
Parties are Mendocino County Inland Water Agency and Power Commission; 
Sonoma County Water Agency; California Trout, Inc.; County of Humboldt, 
California; and the Round Valley Indian Tribes).
    e. Name of Project: Potter Valley Project.
    f. Location: On the Eel and East Fork Russian Rivers in Lake and 
Mendocino Counties, California, about 15 miles northeast of the City of 
Ukiah. The existing 9.959-megawatt (MW) Potter Valley Project occupies 
lands owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (2,328 acres), National 
Forest System Lands administered by the United States Forest Service, 
Mendocino National Forest (1,146 acres), and privately-owned lands (41 
acres).
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791a--825u.
    h. Applicant Contacts: Grant Davis, General Manager, Sonoma County 
Water Agency, 404 Aviation Boulevard, Santa Rosa, CA 95403, (707) 547-
1900, [email protected]; Janet Pauli, Chair, Mendocino County 
Inland Water and Power Commission, P.O. Box 1247, Ukiah, CA 95482, 
(707) 743-1173, [email protected]; Curtis Knight, Executive Director, 
California Trout, 360 Pine Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104, 
(415) 392-8887, [email protected]; and Hank Seemann, Deputy 
Director--Environmental Services, Humboldt County Public Works 
Department, 1106 Second Street, Eureka, CA 95501, (707) 268-2680, 
[email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Quinn Emmering, [email protected], 202-502-
6382.
    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 o 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. Please note that on April 6, 2017, Pacific Gas and Electric 
Company (PG&E) initiated the Commission's Integrated Licensing Process 
(ILP) to relicense the Potter Valley Project by filing, pursuant to 18 
CFR 5.6, a Notice of Intent (NOI) and Pre-Application Document (PAD), 
which included a proposed process plan and schedule. However, on 
January 25, 2019, PG&E filed a notice of withdrawal indicating that it 
was discontinuing its efforts to relicense the project, which became 
effective on February 11, 2019. As a result, on March 1, 2019, the 
Commission issued a Notice Soliciting Applications for interested 
applicants to file NOIs, PADs, and requests to complete the pre-filing 
stages of the relicensing process.
    On June 28, 2019, the NOI Parties filed a NOI to seek a new license 
for the project and that it incorporates by reference PG&E's PAD as 
part of the project record as all the general information on the 
existing project is the same. On August 1, 2019, the Commission issued 
a public notice of the NOI Parties' intent to continue the ILP 
initiated by PG&E and file a final license application by April 14, 
2022. On May 13, 2020, the NOI Parties filed a Feasibility Study 
Report, which includes information on the proposed Regional Entity to 
operate and maintain the project and its proposed changes to project 
facilities and operations from what PG&E originally proposed. 
Therefore, in addition to the Feasibility Study Report and NOI, 
participants should also refer to PG&E's PAD for general information 
about existing project facilities, project operations, and 
environmental resources in the project area.
    l. Deadline for filing scoping comments: August 27, 2020.
    The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file 
scoping comments using the Commission's eFiling system at https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx. Commenters can submit brief 
comments up to 6,000 characters, without prior registration, using the 
eComment system at https://ferconline.ferc.gov/QuickComment.aspx. You 
must include your name and contact information at the end of your 
comments. For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at 
[email protected], (866) 208-3676 (toll free), or (202) 502-
8659 (TTY). In lieu of electronic filing, you may submit a paper copy. 
Submissions sent via the U.S. Postal Service must be addressed to: 
Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. Submissions sent via 
any other carrier must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852. The first page of any filing should include docket 
number P-77-298.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
interveners 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 intervener files comments or documents with the 
Commission relating to the merits of an issue that may affect the 
responsibilities of a particular resource agency, it must also serve a 
copy of the document on that resource agency.
    m. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    n. The Potter Valley Project stores winter runoff from the upper 
Eel River Basin and annually diverts an average of approximately 60,000 
acre-feet of Eel River water into the Russian River to generate 
hydroelectric power, provide water to local water users, and meet 
regulatory streamflow requirements for the Eel River and East Branch 
Russian River.
    Existing project facilities include: (1) Lake Pillsbury, a 2,275-
acre storage reservoir with a current storage capacity of 76,876 acre-
feet at normal maximum water surface elevation (NMWSE) of 1,828.3 feet 
impounded by Scott Dam on the Eel River; (2) Scott Dam, a 130-foot-
high, 805-foot-long, concrete gravity dam with an ogee-shaped, overflow 
spillway structure with five 32-foot-wide, 10-foot-high, radial gates, 
and 26 10-foot-high, 7.5- to 10-foot-wide, steel slide gates; (3) a 72-
inch-diameter, riveted-steel outlet pipe passing through Scott Dam at 
invert

[[Page 46620]]

elevation 1,730.3 feet, controlled by a 42-inch Lauren-Johnson needle 
valve that releases water downstream into the Eel River; (4) Van 
Arsdale Reservoir, a 106-acre reservoir at NMWSE of 1,494.3 feet with a 
current storage capacity of 390 acre-feet impounded by Cape Horn Dam on 
the Eel River; (5) Cape Horn Dam, consisting of a 60-foot-high, 237-
foot-long, earthfill section and a 63-foot-high, 283-foot-long, 
concrete, gravity overflow spillway section with the crest at 1,490.3 
feet msl elevation; (6) release gates at the center of the dam passing 
water downstream through a 434-foot-long, pool-and-weir type fish 
ladder that rises a vertical distance of 400 feet for anadromous fish 
passage to the Eel River and its tributaries; (7) Van Arsdale intake 
diversion structure, that includes fish screens and a fish return 
channel, diverting water from the Eel River about 400 feet upstream of 
Cape Horn Dam; (8) a trans-basin diversion system comprised of a 5,826-
foot-long tunnel, a 457-foot-long conduit, an 807-foot-long tunnel, and 
a 367-foot-long conduit that conveys water to the penstocks; (9) a 
butterfly valve house and penstock bypass channel to maintain flows in 
the East Branch Russian River during powerhouse outages; (10) a 1,793-
foot-long, steel penstock and a 1,812-foot-long steel penstock 
supplying water to the powerhouse; (11) a powerhouse with three Francis 
turbine generating units with installed capacities of 4.4 MW, 2.559 MW, 
and 3.060 MW; (12) a 85-foot-long tailrace that receives water from the 
powerhouse and discharges to either non-project canals operated by the 
Potter Valley Irrigation District or to a 6,325-foot-long project canal 
that flows into the East Fork Russian River; (13) a switchyard; (14) 
recreation facilities consisting of five family campgrounds, two group 
campgrounds, and several day-use facilities; and (15) appurtenant 
facilities. The project has a total installed capacity of 9.959 MW and, 
under current operation (since 2007), an average annual generation of 
19,900 megawatt-hours (MWh).
    The NOI Parties propose to: (1) remove Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury 
to restore anadromous fish passage and riparian and aquatic habitat on 
the Eel River; (2) modify the Van Arsdale intake structure to increase 
diversion capacity to improve water supply reliability to the Russian 
River and power generation capacity, and to reduce the risk of fish 
entrainment; (3) modify fish passage facilities at Cape Horn Dam to 
improv upstream and downstream fish passage; and (4) modify project 
operations to reflect a seasonal diversion from the Eel River to the 
Russian River Basin to reduce environmental impacts in the river 
basins.
    o. In addition to publishing the full text of this document in the 
Federal Register. The Commission provides all interested persons an 
opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this document 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. 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 Online 
Support.
    p. You may also register online at https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx to be notified via email of new filings and issuances 
related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support.
    q. Scoping Process: The Commission intends to prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Potter Valley Project in 
accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The EIS will 
consider both site-specific and cumulative environmental impacts and 
reasonable alternatives to the proposed action.
    Commission staff does not anticipate holding a formal public or 
agency scoping meeting at this time. Instead, we are soliciting 
comments, recommendations, and information on Scoping Document 3 (SD3) 
issued on July 28, 2020.
    Copies of SD3 outlining the subject areas to be addressed in the 
EIS were distributed to the parties on the Commission's mailing list 
and to the NOI Parties' distribution list. The SD3 may be viewed on the 
Commission's website using the eLibrary link (see item o above).

    Dated: July 28, 2020.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-16811 Filed 7-31-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P