[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 66 (Thursday, April 4, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23597-23598]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-07148]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 7153-018]


Consolidated Hydro New York, 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.: 7153-018.
    c. Date filed: April 29, 2022.
    d. Applicant: Consolidated Hydro New York, LLC.
    e. Name of Project: Victory Mills Hydroelectric Project (Victory 
Mills Project or project).
    f. Location: On Fish Creek in Saratoga County in the Village of 
Victory, New York.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Curtis Mooney, Manager, Regulatory Affairs, 
Patriot Hydro, LLC, 59 Ayers Island Road, Bristol, NH 03222, (603) 744-
0846, or, Kevin Webb, Hydro Licensing Manager, Patriot Hydro, LLC, 670 
N Commercial Street, Suite 204, Manchester, NH 03101, (603) 623-8222.
    i. FERC Contact: Jacob Harrell, [email protected], (202) 502-
7313.
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: May 30, 2024.

    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, please send a paper copy via 
U.S. Postal Service to: Debbie-Anne A. Reese, Acting Secretary, Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, 
DC 20426. Submissions sent via any other carrier must be addressed to: 
Debbie-Anne A. Reese, Acting 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: Victory Mills Hydroelectric Project (P-7153-018).
    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. The Victory Mills Project consists of: (1) a dam that includes: 
(a) an approximately 150-foot-long concrete spillway varying in height 
from 4 to 6 feet with a crest elevation of 187.5 feet National Geodetic 
Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD29), and (b) a sluice gate section 
approximately 19 feet high and 40 feet long with four gated spillway 
bays, each with a sill elevation of 181 feet NGVD29 and containing a 7-
foot-high by 8-foot-wide wooden timber gate; (2) a 4.3-acre reservoir 
with a gross storage capacity of approximately 18 acre-feet at the 
normal surface elevation of 187.5 feet NGVD29; (3) an intake channel 
feeding a 51-foot-long, 25-foot-high concrete intake structure; (4) an 
8-foot-diameter, 300-foot-long steel penstock; (5) a 27-foot by 46-foot 
concrete powerhouse containing a single turbine-generator unit with an 
installed capacity of 1,656 kilowatts; (6) an approximately 30-foot-
wide by 530-foot-long tailrace channel; (7) a 90-foot-long generator 
lead extending through the powerhouse to a transformer and then a 100-
foot-long underground and a 20-foot-long aerial, 4.16-kilovolt 
transmission line to the point of interconnection; and (8) appurtenant 
facilities. There are no recreation facilities at the project. An 
average of 6,073 MWh is generated at the project annually.
    The Victory Mills Project operates as a run-of-river facility with 
no storage or flood control capacity. A continuous minimum bypassed 
reach flow of 36 cubic feet per second (cfs), or inflow, whichever is 
less, is maintained through operation of a sluice gate at the dam. The 
minimum hydraulic capacity for operating the turbine unit is 60 cfs, 
therefore, the minimum river flow needed for project operation is 96 
cfs (36 cfs plus 60 cfs). When inflow at the project is less than 96 
cfs, river flows are allowed to pass downstream through the bypassed 
reach. When the inflow exceeds the maximum hydraulic capacity of the 
project at 590 cfs, the impoundment level is permitted to rise over the 
spillway.
    m. Copies of the application can be viewed on the Commission's 
website at https://www.ferc.gov, using the ``eLibrary'' link. Enter the 
project's docket number, excluding the last three digits in the docket 
number field, to access the document. For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support.
    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, contact FERC 
Online Support.
    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 at [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 and an 
environmental site review in the vicinity of the project to receive 
input on the scope of the NEPA document. An evening meeting will focus 
on receiving input from the public and a daytime meeting will focus on 
the concerns of resource agencies, non-governmental organizations 
(NGOs), and Indian Tribes. We invite all interested agencies, Indian 
Tribes, NGOs, and individuals to attend one or both meetings. The times 
and locations of these meetings are as follows:

Evening Scoping Meeting

Date: Monday, April 29, 2024
Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT

[[Page 23598]]

Place: Village of Victory Town Hall
Address: 23 Pine Street, Victory Mills, NY 12884

Daytime Scoping Meeting

Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Time: 9:00 a.m. EDT
Place: Village of Victory Town Hall
Address: 23 Pine Street, Victory Mills, NY 12884

    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. All interested individuals, agencies, 
Indian Tribes, and NGOs are invited to attend. All participants are 
responsible for their own transportation to the site. Please RSVP via 
email to Miley Kinney at [email protected] or by phone at (603) 
732-8162 by April 19, 2024, if you plan to attend the environmental 
site review. The time and location of the environmental site review is 
as follows:

Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. EDT
Place: Village of Victory Town Hall
Address: 23 Pine Street, Victory Mills, NY 12884

    All persons attending the environmental site review must adhere to 
the following requirements: (1) all persons must wear sturdy, closed-
toe shoes or boots; (2) persons with open-toed shoes/sandals/flip 
flops/high heels, etc. will not be allowed on the environmental site 
review; (3) persons must be 18 years or older; (4) no photography will 
be allowed inside the powerhouse; (5) no weapons are allowed on-site; 
(6) no alcohol/drugs are allowed on-site (or persons exhibiting the 
effects thereof); and (7) no animals (except for service animals) are 
allowed on the environmental site review.

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: March 29, 2024.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2024-07148 Filed 4-3-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P