[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 24, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11283-11284]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-03800]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 15003-001]


New Hampshire Renewable Resources, 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: Subsequent Minor License.
    b. Project No.: 15003-001.
    c. Date filed: February 8, 2021.
    d. Applicant: New Hampshire Renewable Resources, LLC (New Hampshire 
Renewable).
    e. Name of Project: Sugar River II Hydroelectric Project (project).
    f. Location: On the Sugar River in Sullivan County, New Hampshire. 
The project does not occupy any federal land.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Mr. Paul V. Nolan, New Hampshire Renewable 
Resources, LLC, 5515 North 17th Street, Arlington, VA 22205; Phone at 
(703) 534-5509, or email at [email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Michael Watts at (202) 502-6123, or 
[email protected].
    j. The current license for the Sugar River II Hydroelectric Project 
is held by Sugar River Hydro II, LLC (Sugar River Hydro) under Project 
No. 10934. On April 30, 2019, Sugar River Hydro filed a letter stating 
that it does not intend to file an application for a subsequent 
license. In response to a solicitation notice issued by the Commission 
on May 8, 2019, New Hampshire Renewable filed a pre-application 
document and notice of intent to file an application for the project. 
Commission staff assigned Project No. 15003 for the licensing 
proceeding initiated by New Hampshire Renewable's filing.
    k. 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).
    l. 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.
    m. Deadline for filing additional study requests and requests for 
cooperating agency status: April 9, 2021.
    The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file 
additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status 
using the Commission's eFiling system at https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx. 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. All filings must clearly identify the project name and 
docket number on the first page: Sugar River II Hydroelectric Project 
(P-15003-001).
    n. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    o. Project Description: The existing Sugar River II Hydroelectric 
Project consists of: (1) A 115.5-foot-long, 10-foot-high reinforced 
concrete dam that includes the following sections: (a) A 35-foot-long 
left abutment section with a cut-off wall; (b) a 44.5-foot-long 
spillway section with a crest elevation of 822 feet National Geodetic 
Vertical Datum 1929 (NGVD 29) that contains: (i) Two 11.5-foot-wide, 
10-foot-high stanchion bays equipped with wooden stop logs; (ii) an 
11.5-foot-wide, 10-foot-high hydraulically-operated steel slide gate; 
and (iii) a 3-foot-wide sluiceway; and (c) a 36-foot-long right 
abutment section with a cut-off wall; (2) a 1.4-acre impoundment with a 
storage capacity of 11 acre-feet at an elevation of 822 feet NGVD 29; 
(3) a 14-foot-wide, 12-foot-high intake structure adjacent to the right 
abutment equipped with a trashrack with 1-inch clear bar spacing; (4) a 
730-foot-long buried penstock that includes a 500-foot-long, 7-foot-
diameter steel section and a 230-foot-long, 7-foot-diameter concrete 
section; (5) a 35-foot-long, 27-foot-wide concrete and brick masonry 
powerhouse containing a single 200-kilowatt Francis-type turbine-
generator unit; (6) a 75-foot-long, 4.16-kilovolt overhead transmission 
line and a transformer that connects the project to the local utility 
distribution system; and (7) appurtenant facilities. The project 
creates an approximately 400-foot-long bypassed reach of the Sugar 
River.
    p. The current license requires the licensee to: (1) Operate the 
project in an instantaneous run-of-river mode; (2) release a continuous 
minimum bypassed reach flow of 15 cubic feet per second (cfs) or 
inflow, whichever is less, through the sluiceway from June 16 through 
March 30, and release a minimum bypassed reach flow of 20 cfs from 
April 1 through June 15, during the downstream migration season for 
Atlantic Salmon smolts. The project is operated in a run-of-river mode 
by manually raising and lowering the spillway slide gate, and removing/
adding stop logs to the stanchion bays to pass flows and maintain a 
constant impoundment water surface elevation. Downstream fish passage 
is provided through the sluiceway. The average annual generation of the 
project is approximately 650 megawatt-hours. New Hampshire Renewable is 
not proposing any new project facilities or changes in project 
operation.
    q. 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-
15003). 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 on March 13, 2020. For assistance,

[[Page 11284]]

contact FERC at [email protected] or call toll-free, (866) 
208-3676 or (202) 502-8659 (TTY).
    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.
    r. Procedural schedule: The application will be processed according 
to the following preliminary schedule. Revisions to the schedule will 
be made as appropriate.

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Issue Deficiency Letter (if necessary)....  April 2021.
Request Additional Information............  April 2021.
Issue Acceptance Letter...................  July 2021.
Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments.....  August 2021.
Request Additional Information (if          October 2021.
 necessary).
Issue Scoping Document 2..................  November 2021.
Issue Notice of Ready for Environmental     November 2021.
 Analysis.
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    s. 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: February 18, 2021.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2021-03800 Filed 2-23-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P