[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 137 (Wednesday, July 17, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58147-58148]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-15731]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 7887-019]


Ashuelot River Hydro, Inc.; 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.: 7887-019.
    c. Date filed: June 28, 2024.
    d. Applicant: Ashuelot River Hydro, Inc. (Ashuelot Hydro).
    e. Name of Project: Minnewawa Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Minnewawa Brook, in the Town of Marlborough, 
Cheshire County, New Hampshire.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Justin Ahmann, Owner, Ashuelot River Hydro, 
Inc., 75 Somers Road, P.O. Box 474, Somers, Montana 59932; Phone at 
(406) 393-2127 or email mt.com">Justin@apec-mt.com; or Daniel Parker, 
Consultant, 45north Renewable Energy, LLC, 330 May Road, Potsdam, New 
York 13676; Phone at (315) 261-2158 or email 
[email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Justin R. Robbins at (202) 502-8308, or 
[email protected].
    j. 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).
    k. 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.
    l. Deadline for filing additional study requests and requests for 
cooperating agency status: August 27, 2024.
    The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file 
additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status 
using the Commission's eFiling system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp. 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: 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, MD 20852. All filings must clearly 
identify the project name and docket number on the first page: 
Minnewawa Hydroelectric Project (P-7887-019).
    m. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    n. The existing Minnewawa Project consists of the following: (1) a 
200-foot-long concrete arch dam (Minnewawa Dam) that includes a low-
level outlet valve and a spillway with 2-foot-high flashboards with a 
crest elevation of 1070.2 feet National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 
(NGVD 29) at top of the flashboards; (2) an impoundment with a surface 
area of 10 acres at an elevation of 1070.2 feet NGVD 29; (3) a 20-foot-
high, 7.5-foot-wide intake structure

[[Page 58148]]

equipped with a trashrack with 1-inch clear bar spacing; (4) a 5,717 
foot-long, 42-inch-diameter steel penstock; (5) a 55.7-foot-long, 24-
foot-wide, brick and concrete powerhouse with a Francis turbine-
generator unit with an authorized installed capacity of 1,000 kilowatts 
(kW); (6) a tailrace; (7) a step-up transformer; (8) a 100-foot-long, 
12.4 kilovolt transmission line; and (9) appurtenant facilities.
    The current license requires Ashuelot Hydro to operate the project 
in instantaneous run-of-river mode, so that flow in the Minnewawa 
Brook, as measured immediately downstream from the project tailrace, 
approximates the instantaneous sum of the inflow to the project 
impoundment. The current license also requires that Ashuelot Hydro 
release a minimum flow of 4 cubic feet per second, as measured 
immediately downstream from the Minnewawa Dam, or inflow to the 
impoundment, whichever is less. The minimum flow is released from the 
low-level outlet valve into a bypassed reach of Minnewawa Brook between 
the dam and the tailrace. The average annual generation of the project 
between 2003 through 2023 was 3,945 megawatt-hours.
    Ashuelot Hydro propose to: (1) continue operating the project in a 
run- of-river mode; (2) install a new 75-kW fixed geometry turbine-
generator unit in the existing powerhouse; (3) install a tap and 
isolation valve to the existing penstock; and (4) increase the height 
of the flashboards on the spillway by one foot and maintain the 
impoundment water surface elevation at 1071.2 feet NGVD 29 (i.e., one 
foot above its current level of 1070.2 feet NGVD 29).
    o. Copies of the application may be viewed on the Commission's 
website at 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-7887). For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support at [email protected] or call tollfree, (866) 
208-3676 or (202) 502-8659 (TTY).
    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 [email protected].
    p. Procedural schedule and final amendments: The application will 
be processed according to the following preliminary schedule. Revisions 
to the schedule will be made as appropriate.

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               Milestone                           Target date
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Issue Deficiency Letter (if necessary).  August 2024.
Request for Additional Information.....  August 2024.
Issue Acceptance Letter................  December 2024.
Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments..  December 2024.
Request Additional Information (if       January 2025.
 necessary).
Issue Scoping Document 2 (if necessary)  March 2025.
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    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: July 11, 2024.
Debbie-Anne A. Reese,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2024-15731 Filed 7-16-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P