[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25395-25396]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08738]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 3442-029]


City of Nashua, New Hampshire; Notice Soliciting Scoping Comments

    Take notice that the following application has been filed with the 
Commission and is available for public inspection.
    a. Type of Application: Subsequent License.
    b. Project No.: P-3442-029.
    c. Date filed: July 30, 2021.
    d. Applicant: City of Nashua (the City).
    e. Name of Project: Mine Falls Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: The existing project is located on the Nashua River in 
Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. The project does not affect Federal 
lands.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: James W. Donchess, Mayor, City of Nashua, 229 
Main Street, P.O. Box 2019, Nashua, NH 03060; Telephone (603) 589-3260.
    i. FERC Contact: Khatoon Melick, (202) 502-8433, or email at 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: May 19, 2023.
    The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file 
all documents 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, please send a paper copy to: 
Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, 
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: Mine Falls Hydroelectric Project (P-3442-029).
    k. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    l. The existing project consists of: (1) a 242-acre impoundment 
with a normal storage volume of 1,970 acre-feet and a normal headpond 
elevation of 158.76 ft (NAVD 88); (2) a rock filled concrete cap, 
variable in height dam with an approximately 132-foot-long spillway at 
a permanent crest elevation of 154.66 feet, and nominal 4.0-foot-high 
wooden flashboards maintaining a normal headpond elevation of 158.76 
feet; (3) a 22-foot-wide and 170-foot-long reinforced concrete power 
canal located between the right bank of the Nashua river and the single 
flood sluice gate; (4) two 12.5-foot-long wooden stoplog bays located 
immediately upstream of the intake to the right of the concrete capped 
spillway (viewed facing downstream) with a 10-foot-wide gate and a 
short spillway section above the gate; (5) a 40-foot-wide, 20-foot-high 
intake structure with steel trashrack with two square-to-round 
transition openings that feed the two penstocks that terminate at the 
two turbines; (6) two 64-foot-long, 104-inch-diameter steel penstocks 
between the intake and turbine units; (7) a 44-foot-long, 44-foot-wide 
multi-level reinforced concrete powerhouse containing two 1,500 
kilowatt turbine-generator units; (8) an approximately 22-foot-wide, 
1,100-foot-long tailrace that is a channel cut into the Nashua river 
bedrock downstream of the powerhouse that returns water back

[[Page 25396]]

into the Nashua river; (9) a 278-foot-long bypass reach extending from 
the spillway crest and stoplog bays to the downstream of the powerhouse 
at the tailrace, bypassing 20 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water for 
environmental flows; (10) an upstream fish passage; (11) a 610-foot-
long, 34.5-kilovolt underground transmission line connects the 
generator transformer to the interconnect point; and (12) appurtenant 
facilities. The estimated gross head of the project is 38 feet. The 
powerplant has a maximum nameplate capacity of 3 MW. The project 
generates an annual average of 12,563 megawatt-hours.
    The City proposes to continue to operate the project in a run-of-
river mode with no storage or flood control capacity. The project 
operates within a flow range of 180 cfs (150 cfs minimum hydraulic 
capacity to start a single turbine, plus 20 cfs minimum bypass release 
at the dam and an additional 10 cfs flow routed through the Mill Pond 
gatehouse to the Mill Pond and canal) and 1,100 cfs (maximum hydraulic 
capacity of the plant--two turbines combined) or a river flow of 1,130 
cfs. Any flow above the capacity of the turbines plus minimum bypass 
flow and Mill pond diversion is spilled over the dam spillway and 
through the overflow section of the flood sluice gate.
    m. 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. 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, call 1-866-208-3676 or email 
[email protected], for TTY, call (202) 502-8659. Agencies may 
obtain copies of the application directly from the applicant.
    n. 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.
    o. Scoping Process:
    The Commission staff intends to prepare an Environmental Assessment 
(EA) for the Mine Falls Hydroelectric Project in accordance with the 
National Environmental Policy Act. The EA will consider site-specific 
environmental impacts and reasonable alternatives to the proposed 
action.
    Commission staff does not propose to conduct any on-site scoping 
meetings at this time. Instead, we are soliciting comments, 
recommendations, and information, on the Scoping Document (SD) issued 
on April 19, 2023.
    Copies of the SD outlining the subject areas to be addressed in the 
EA were distributed to the parties on the Commission's mailing list and 
the applicant's distribution list. Copies of the SD may be viewed on 
the web at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``eLibrary'' link. Follow the 
directions for accessing information in paragraph m. Based on all 
written comments, a Scoping Document 2 (SD2) may be issued. SD2 may 
include a revised schedule, as well as a list of issues, identified 
through the scoping process.

    Dated: April 19, 2023.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-08738 Filed 4-25-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P