[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 108 (Tuesday, June 6, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37054-37056]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-11936]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 7186-054]


Missisquoi, LLC; Notice of Scoping Meetings and Environmental 
Site Review and Soliciting Scoping Comments

    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.: 7186-054.
    c. Date Filed: September 30, 2022.
    d. Applicant: Missisquoi, LLC (Missisquoi).
    e. Name of Project: Sheldon Springs Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Missisquoi River in Franklin County, Vermont.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Mr. Kevin Webb, Licensing Manager, 
Missisquoi, LLC, 670 N Commercial St., Suite 204, Manchester, NH 03101; 
Phone at (978) 935-6039, or email at [email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Arash Barsari at (202) 502-6207, or 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: July 27, 2023.
    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

[[Page 37055]]

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, MD 20852. All 
filings must clearly identify the project name and docket number on the 
first page: Sheldon Springs Hydroelectric Project (P-7186-054).
    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, they must also serve 
a copy of the document on that resource agency.
    k. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    l. Project Description: The existing project consists of: (1) a 
286-foot-long, 35.5-foot-high concrete Ambursen-type buttress dam that 
includes a 262-footlong spillway section with a 2-foot-high flashboards 
and a crest elevation of 328.8 feet National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 
1929 (NGVD 29) at the top of the flashboards; (2) an impoundment with a 
surface area of 175 acres at an elevation of 328.8 feet NGVD 29; (3) a 
Main Powerhouse that contains two 10.25-megawatt (MW) vertical Kaplan 
turbine-generator units (Units 1 and 2), for a total installed capacity 
of 20.5 MW; (4) a South Mill Powerhouse that contains a 1-MW Francis 
turbine-generator unit (Unit 3); (5) a Grinder Room Powerhouse that 
contains two 1.65-MW Francis turbine-generator units (Units 4 and 5), 
for a total installed capacity of 3.3 MW; (6) a 0.165-MW Kaplan 
turbine-generator; (7) two transmission lines; and (8) appurtenant 
facilities. The project creates an approximately 4,700-foot-long 
bypassed reach of the Missisquoi River.
    Recreation facilities at the project include: (1) a canoe take-out 
area that is located approximately 2,200 feet upstream of the dam on 
the northern shore of the impoundment; (2) a picnic area with three 
picnic tables, a seasonal restroom, an informational kiosk, and a 
parking area that is located immediately downstream of the dam on the 
western bank of the bypassed reach; (3) a whitewater put-in area that 
is located approximately 400 feet downstream of the dam on the western 
shore of the bypassed reach; (4) a picnic area with a picnic table and 
a fire pit that is located approximately 1,000 feet downstream of the 
dam on the southern shore of the bypassed reach; (5) a whitewater take-
out area that is located approximately 300 feet upstream of the 
tailrace of the Grinder Room Powerhouse; and (6) a put-in/take-out area 
adjacent to the Main Powerhouse tailrace.
    Missisquoi voluntarily operates the project in a run-of-river mode, 
such that outflow from the project approximates inflow. The minimum and 
maximum hydraulic capacities of the Main Powerhouse are 300 and 2,612 
cubic feet per second (cfs), respectively. The minimum and maximum 
hydraulic capacities of the South Mill Powerhouse are 112 and 260 cfs, 
respectively. The minimum and maximum hydraulic capacities of the 
Grinder Room Powerhouse are 160 and 400 cfs, respectively. The 0.165-MW 
turbine-generator is only capable of operating at 70 cfs. The average 
annual energy production of the project from 2010 through 2020 was 
69,277 megawatt-hours.
    For the purpose of protecting aquatic resources, Article 35 of the 
current license requires Missisquoi to release: (1) a minimum flow of 
70 cfs or inflow, whichever is less, to the bypassed reach; (2) a 
minimum flow of 270 cfs or inflow, whichever is less, as measured 
immediately below the tailrace of the South Mill Powerhouse; and (3) a 
minimum flow of 285 cfs or inflow, whichever is less, as measured 
immediately below the tailrace of the Main Powerhouse.
    For recreational purposes at the project, the current license 
requires Missisquoi to: (1) provide boat access and take-out facilities 
below the dam and upstream of the Main Powerhouse tailrace, 
respectively; (2) provide a 24-hour telephone message service regarding 
flow conditions at the dam; (3) cooperate with paddling groups to 
determine the optimum flows for boats, and provide the optimum flows 
for a maximum of 6 scheduled weekend days per year up to a maximum of 
200,000,000 cubic feet of whitewater releases each year; and (4) allow 
year-round access for paddlers regardless of whether whitewater flows 
are being released.
    Missisquoi proposes to: (1) revise the project boundary to include 
an approximately 400-foot-long path from the canoe take-out site to 
Shawville Road; (2) revise the project boundary to include a portion of 
the Heather Lane from its intersection with Shawville Road to 
approximately 50 feet north of a non-project Solar Farm, as part of the 
canoe portage route; (3) continue to operate the project in a run-of-
river mode; (4) continue to provide a minimum flow of 70 cfs or inflow, 
whichever is less, from the dam into the bypassed reach; (5) release a 
minimum flow of 285 cfs downstream of the South Mill Powerhouse 
tailrace or inflow, whichever is less; (6) implement an impoundment 
refill procedure, in the event of a drawdown of the impoundment, 
whereby 90 percent of inflow is passed downstream and 10 percent of 
inflow is used to refill the impoundment; (7) release approximately 13 
cfs or inflow, whichever is less, over the spillway flashboard crest to 
provide an aesthetic veil of flow over the dam, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 
p.m. from May 1 to October 31; (8) develop an operation compliance 
monitoring plan; (9) acquire property rights of a land associated with 
the 400-foot-long path from the canoe take-out site to Shawville Road; 
(10) remount the sign upstream of the boater exclusion cable, which 
says ``Danger Dam Ahead--Portage Here'' to be more visible from the 
river; (11) provide a two-car parking area along Heather Lane 
approximately 400 feet southeast of the Main Powerhouse for the put-in/
take-out area adjacent to the Main Powerhouse tailrace; (12) improve 
the existing whitewater put-in area by rearranging existing boulders to 
provide a stepped approach to the river in coordination with Vermont 
Division of Historic Preservation; (13) relocate the existing 
whitewater take-out area to a more gently sloped take-out immediately 
downstream of the existing location; (14) release whitewater flows from 
the project dam in consultation with the American Whitewater and 
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources; (15) ramp up and ramp down 
generation flows by 500 cfs per hour when providing whitewater flows; 
and (16) implement erosion control measures to protect cultural 
resources.
    Missisquoi proposes to decommission Units 4 and 5, and remove the 
Grinder Room Powerhouse and associated facilities from the project 
boundary. Missisquoi proposes to file the following information related 
to the decommissioning by September 1, 2023: (1) an engineering 
assessment and historic structures assessment of the structures to be 
decommissioned; (2) a decommissioning plan; and (3) a revised single-
line electrical diagram.
    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

[[Page 37056]]

document. For assistance, contact FERC Online Support.
    You may also register 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, please 
contact FERC Online Support at [email protected].
    The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports 
meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission 
proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, 
environmental justice communities, Tribal members and others, access 
publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For 
public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as 
interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is 
encouraged to contact OPP at (202)502-6595 or [email protected].
    n. Scoping Process
    Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 
Commission staff intends to prepare either an environmental assessment 
(EA) or an environmental impact statement (EIS) (collectively referred 
to as the ``NEPA document'') that describes and evaluates the probable 
effects, including an assessment of the site-specific and cumulative 
effects, if any, of the proposed action and alternatives. The 
Commission's scoping process will help determine the required level of 
analysis and satisfy the NEPA scoping requirements, irrespective of 
whether the Commission issues an EA or an EIS.

Scoping Meetings

    Commission staff will hold two public scoping meetings to receive 
input on the scope of the environmental issues that should be analyzed 
in the NEPA document. The daytime meeting will focus on the concerns of 
resource agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and Indian 
tribes. The evening meeting will focus on receiving input from the 
public. All interested individuals, resource agencies, Indian tribes, 
and NGOs are invited to attend one or both of the meetings. The times 
and locations of these meetings are as follows:

Daytime Scoping Meeting

    Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
    Time: 10:00 a.m. (EDT).
    Place: Sheldon Elementary School, Gymnasium.
    Address: 78 Poor Farm Road, Sheldon, VT 05483.

Evening Scoping Meeting

    Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
    Time: 6:30 p.m. (EDT).
    Place: Sheldon Elementary School, Gymnasium.
    Address: 78 Poor Farm Road, Sheldon, VT 05483.
    Copies of the Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the subject areas to 
be addressed in the NEPA document were distributed to the parties on 
the Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SD1 will be available at 
the scoping meeting or may be viewed on the web at http://www.ferc.gov 
using the ``eLibrary'' link (see item m above).

Environmental Site Review

    The applicant and Commission staff will conduct an environmental 
site review of the project beginning at 1:00 p.m. on June 27, 2023. All 
interested individuals, agencies, tribes, and NGOs are invited to 
attend. All participants should meet at the parking area west of the 
project dam, which is located at 104 Upper Shipping Yard Road, Sheldon, 
Vermont 05483. All participants are responsible for their own 
transportation and must wear closed-toe shoes/boots for walking in 
uneven/sloped terrain around the project, and for entrance into the 
powerhouses during the site visit. If you plan to attend the 
environmental site review, please contact Ms. Miley Kinney of the 
Missisquoi, LLC at (603) 732-8162, or via email at 
[email protected] on or before June 21, 2023.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, Commission staff will: (1) summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the NEPA 
document; (2) solicit from the meeting participants all available 
information, especially quantifiable data, on the resources at issue; 
(3) encourage statements from experts and the public on issues that 
should be analyzed in the NEPA document, including viewpoints in 
opposition to, or in support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) 
determine the resource issues to be addressed in the NEPA document; and 
(5) identify those issues that require a detailed analysis, as well as 
those issues that do not require a detailed analysis.

Procedures

    The meetings are recorded by a stenographer and become part of the 
formal record of the Commission proceeding on the project. Individuals, 
NGOs, Indian tribes, and agencies with environmental expertise and 
concerns are encouraged to attend the meeting and to assist the staff 
in defining and clarifying the issues to be addressed in the NEPA 
document.

    Dated: May 30, 2023.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-11936 Filed 6-5-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P