[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 236 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79008-79010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-26929]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 2426-227]


California Department of Water Resources and Los Angeles 
Department of Water and Power; Notice of Application Accepted for 
Filing, Soliciting Motions To Intervene and Protests, Ready for 
Environmental Analysis, and Soliciting Comments, Recommendations, 
Preliminary Terms and Conditions, and Preliminary Fishway Prescriptions

    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.: 2426-227.
    c. Date filed: January 30, 2020.
    d. Co-Applicants: California Department of Water Resources and Los 
Angeles Department of Water and Power.
    e. Name of Project: South SWP Hydropower Project
    f. Location: Along the West Branch of the California Aqueduct, and 
along Piru Creek and Castaic Creek, tributaries to the Santa Clara 
River, in Los Angeles County, California. The project currently 
occupies 2,790 acres of federal land administered by the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as part of the Angeles 
National Forest and the Los Padres National Forest; and 17 acres of 
federal land administered by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of 
Land Management.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Gwen Knittweis, Chief, Hydropower License 
Planning and Compliance Office, California Department of Water 
Resources, P.O. Box 924836, Sacramento, California 94236-0001, (916) 
557-4554, or [email protected]; and Simon Zewdu, Manager of 
Strategic Initiatives, Power Planning and Development, Los Angeles 
Department of Water and Power, 111 North Hope Street, Room 921, Los 
Angeles, CA 90012, (213) 367-0881, or [email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Kyle Olcott at (202) 502-8963; or email at 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing motions to intervene and protests, comments, 
recommendations, preliminary terms and conditions, and preliminary 
prescriptions: 60 days from the issuance date of this notice; reply 
comments are due 105 days from the issuance date of this notice.
    The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file 
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-2426-227.
    Intervenors--those on the Commission's service list for this 
proceeding--are reminded that if they file comments with the 
Commission, they must also serve a copy of their filing on each person 
whose name appears on the official service list. Note that the list is 
periodically updated. The official service list can be obtained on the 
Commission's website (https://www.ferc.gov)--click on Documents and 
Filing and click on eService--or call the Office of the Secretary, 
Dockets Branch at (202) 502-8715. In addition, if any party 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 the resource 
agency.
    k. This application has been accepted for filing and is now ready 
for environmental analysis.
    The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a final rule on 
July 15, 2020, revising the regulations under 40 CFR parts 1500-1518 
that federal agencies use to implement NEPA (see Update to the 
Regulations Implementing the Procedural Provisions of the National 
Environmental Policy Act, 85 FR 43,304). The Final Rule became 
effective on and applies to any NEPA process begun after September 14, 
2020. An agency may also apply the regulations to ongoing activities 
and environmental documents begun before September 14, 2020, which 
includes the

[[Page 79009]]

proposed Gouverneur Project. Commission staff intends to conduct its 
NEPA review in accordance with CEQ's new regulations.
    l. The project consists of two developments: Warne Development and 
Castaic Development. The average annual generation of the South SWP 
Project from 2007 to 2017 was 304 gigawatt-hours (GWh) at the Warne 
powerplant and 520 GWh at the Castaic powerplant.

Warne Development

    The major features of the Warne Development include: (1) Quail 
Lake, (2) Lower Quail Canal, (3) Peace Valley pipeline and intake 
embankment, (4) Gorman bypass channel, (5) the William E. Warne 
powerplant (Warne powerplant), (6) switchyard, (7) the transmission 
line that interconnects Warne powerplant with the Southern California 
Edison (SCE) Pastoria-Pardee transmission line, and (8) appurtenant 
facilities.
    Quail Lake is a small regulating reservoir along the State Water 
Project (SWP) that was created by constructing an embankment along a 
sag pond formed by the San Andreas fault.
    Water released from Quail Lake through the Quail Lake outlet flows 
into the 2-mile-long Lower Quail canal which serves as a conveyance to 
the Peace Valley pipeline intake.
    SWP water flowing from Quail Lake through Lower Quail canal is 
routed into the Peace Valley pipeline to Warne powerplant and then to 
Pyramid Lake.
    In the event of a Peace Valley pipeline outage or scheduled SWP 
water releases exceeding the pipeline's capacity, the water is routed 
through the Gorman bypass channel directly into Pyramid Lake.
    The Warne powerplant, an above-ground, steel-reinforced, concrete 
powerhouse, is located at the northern (upstream) end of Pyramid Lake, 
at the terminus of the Peace Valley pipeline. The powerplant has two 
37.5-MW Pelton-type generating units, each with a rated discharge of 
782 cubic feet per second (cfs).
    The project includes a 3-mile-long, single-circuit, 220-kilovolt 
(kV) transmission line that connects output from the project through 
the Warne switchyard to SCE's Pardee-Pastoria transmission line.

Castaic Development

    The major features of the Castaic Development include: (1) Pyramid 
dam, (2) Pyramid Lake, (3) the Angeles tunnel and seven penstocks, (4) 
the Castaic powerplant and switchyard, (5) the Elderberry forebay and 
dam, (6) storm bypass channel and check dams, (7) the transmission 
lines that interconnect Castaic switchyard with the Independent System 
Operator power grid, and (8) appurtenant facilities. DWR owns and 
operates the facilities above the surge chamber at the southeastern end 
of the Angeles tunnel, and LADWP owns and operates the remainder of the 
facilities, including the surge chamber.
    Pyramid dam, at the southern end of Pyramid Lake, is a 1,090-foot-
long, 400-foot-high zoned earth and rock fill dam. Water is typically 
released from a low-level outlet to an 18-mile-long section of Piru 
Creek (Pyramid reach), which extends from Pyramid dam to the NMWSE of 
Lake Piru.
    Pyramid Lake serves as regulated storage for the Castaic 
powerplant. Pyramid Lake also serves as emergency storage for the SWP.
    Angeles tunnel, the principal outlet from Pyramid Lake, supplies 
water to the Castaic powerplant in the generating mode and returns 
water to the lake from Elderberry forebay when the powerplant is 
operating in the pumping mode.
    The Castaic powerplant, an aboveground/underground, steel-
reinforced, concrete powerhouse, is located on the northern (upstream) 
end of Elderberry forebay and is a pump-generating plant with the 
ability to pump water back to Pyramid Lake using off-peak energy when 
it is economical to do so. Elderberry forebay serves as an afterbay for 
the Castaic powerplant while in generating mode and as a forebay while 
in pumping mode. Pyramid Lake serves as the upper reservoir for the 
powerplant.
    The powerplant has six Francis-type pump-turbine units each with a 
rated output of 355,000 horsepower (hp), and an estimated rated 
discharge of 3,500 cfs. It also has one Pelton-type pump starting 
turbine unit with a rated output of 69,000 hp and an approximate rated 
discharge of 752 cfs.
    Elderberry forebay dam is a 1,990-foot-long, 200-foot-high zoned 
earthfill dam.
    The Castaic switchyard is a fenced switchyard located adjacent to 
the powerhouse. An 11.4-mile-long, 230-kV transmission line delivers 
energy from the Castaic switchyard to the Haskell Junction substation 
and transmits energy to the Castaic powerplant when in the pump-back 
operating mode.
    Co-Licensees' Proposed Modifications
    In their Final License Application, the co-licensees propose to add 
the following facilities to the project license: The existing Quail 
Detention Embankment, segments of some existing roads necessary for 
project operation and maintenance, and an existing streamflow gage 
located on Piru Creek downstream of Pyramid Dam. Additionally, the co-
licensees propose to remove the Warne Transmission Line from the 
project license.
    The co-licensees also propose to modify the project boundary to 
reduce the amount of land from 6,928 acres to 4,563.8 acres. The 
project, as proposed by the licensee, would reduce the amount of 
federal land from 2,790 acres to 2,007 acres of federal lands: 1,336 
acres administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 
Service, as part of the Angeles National Forest; 665 acres administered 
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as part of the 
Los Padres National Forest; and 6.5 acres administered by the U.S. 
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
    m. A copy of the application can be viewed on the Commission's 
website at https://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.
    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. Anyone may submit comments, a protest, or a motion to intervene 
in accordance with the requirements of Rules of Practice and Procedure, 
18 CFR 385.210, .211, and .214. In determining the appropriate action 
to take, the Commission will consider all protests or other comments 
filed, but only those who file a motion to intervene in accordance with 
the Commission's Rules may become a party to the proceeding. Any 
comments, protests, or motions to intervene must be received on or 
before the specified comment date for the particular application.
    All filings must (1) bear in all capital letters the title PROTEST, 
MOTION TO INTERVENE, COMMENTS, REPLY COMMENTS, RECOMMENDATIONS, 
PRELIMINARY TERMS AND CONDITIONS, or PRELIMINARY FISHWAY PRESCRIPTIONS; 
(2) set forth in the heading the name of the applicant and the project 
number of the application to which the filing responds; (3) furnish the 
name, address, and telephone number of the person protesting or 
intervening; and (4) otherwise comply with the requirements of 18 CFR 
385.2001 through 385.2005. All comments, recommendations, terms and 
conditions or prescriptions must set

[[Page 79010]]

forth their evidentiary basis and otherwise comply with the 
requirements of 18 CFR 4.34(b). Agencies may obtain copies of the 
application directly from the applicant. A copy of any protest or 
motion to intervene must be served upon each representative of the 
applicant specified in the particular application. A copy of all other 
filings in reference to this application must be accompanied by proof 
of service on all persons listed in the service list prepared by the 
Commission in this proceeding, in accordance with 18 CFR 4.34(b) and 
385.2010.
    o. Procedural Schedule: The application will be processed according 
to the following schedule. Revisions to the schedule may be made as 
appropriate

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                 Milestone                           Target date
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deadline for filing comments,               February 2021.
 recommendations, preliminary terms and
 conditions, and preliminary fishway
 prescriptions.
Deadline for Filing Reply Comments........  March 2021.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    p. Final amendments to the application must be filed with the 
Commission no later than 30 days from the issuance date of this notice.
    q. A license applicant must file no later than 60 days following 
the date of issuance of the notice of acceptance and ready for 
environmental analysis provided for in Sec.  5.22: (1) A copy of the 
water quality certification; (2) a copy of the request for 
certification, including proof of the date on which the certifying 
agency received the request; or (3) evidence of waiver of water quality 
certification.

    Dated: December 2, 2020.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-26929 Filed 12-7-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P