83 FR 52824 - Blackstone 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

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 202 (October 18, 2018)

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 202 (Thursday, October 18, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52824-52826]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-22728]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY



Federal Energy Regulatory Commission



[Project No. 3023-014]




Blackstone 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: New Major License.

    b. Project No.: P-3023-014.

    c. Date filed: October 1, 2018.

    d. Applicant: Blackstone Hydro, Inc.

    e. Name of Project: Tupperware Hydroelectric Project.

    f. Location: On the Blackstone River in Providence County, Rhode 

Island and Worcester County, Massachusetts. No federal lands are 

occupied by the project works or located within the project boundary.

    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).

    h. Applicant Contact: Lewis C. Loon, General Manager, Operations 

and Maintenance--USA/QC, KEI USA Power Management Inc., 423 Brunswick 

Avenue, Gardiner, ME 04345; Phone at (207) 203-3027, or email at 

[email protected].



[[Page 52825]]



    i. FERC Contact: Amy Chang at (202) 502-8250, 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: November 30, 2018.

    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, please send a paper copy 

to: Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street 

NE, Washington, DC 20426. The first page of any filing should include 

docket number P-3023-014.

    m. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 

time.

    n. Project Description: The existing Tupperware Hydroelectric 

Project consists of: (1) A 210-foot-long, 12-foot-high arch-type 

masonry dam and spillway (Tupperware Dam) with 12-inch-high flashboards 

and a crest elevation of 192.8 feet above mean sea level (msl) at the 

top of the flashboards; (2) an approximately 2-mile-long impoundment 

with a normal maximum elevation of 192.8 feet msl; (3) water conveyance 

structures that consist of: (a) An 1,100-foot-long, 60- to 100-foot-

wide power canal located 700 feet upstream of the Tupperware Dam; (b) 

an 11.5-acre headpond at a normal maximum elevation of 192.8 feet msl; 

(c) a 300-foot-long, 40-foot-wide headrace canal structure; (d) a 46-

foot-long, 16-foot-high headgate dam structure with four 7-foot-high, 

8-foot-wide intake gates; and (e) four 8-foot-diameter, 22-foot-long 

buried penstocks; (4) a concrete and brick powerhouse containing four 

vertical Francis turbine-generator units with a total authorized 

capacity of 1,724 kilowatts; (5) a 100-foot-long, 40-foot-wide tailrace 

channel that discharges into the Blackstone River; (6) outlet work 

structures located upstream of the headgate dam structure in the 

headrace canal that consist of: (a) A 37-foot-long, 12-foot-high 

emergency spillway with a crest elevation of 196 feet msl located at 

the north end of the headrace; (b) two 5-foot-wide, 5-foot-high outlet 

gates; (c) a 60-foot-long outlet channel; and (d) two 36-inch-diameter, 

150-foot-long concrete conduits that empty into a 190-foot-long, 20-

foot-wide channel that discharges into the Blackstone River downstream 

from the tailrace channel; (7) a 90-foot-long, 4.16-kilovolt (kV) 

transmission line, a 3,000 kV-amperes step-up transformer, and a 1,300-

foot-long, 13.8-kV transmission line connecting the project generators 

to the regional electric grid; and (8) appurtenant facilities.

    The project bypasses approximately 1 mile of the Blackstone River, 

and there is currently no required minimum instream flow for the 

bypassed reach. Blackstone Hydro operates the project in a run-of-river 

(ROR) mode with an annual average generation of approximately 4,027 

megawatt-hours.

    Blackstone Hydro proposes to: (1) continue operating the project in 

a ROR mode; (2) provide a year-round minimum flow of 35 cubic feet per 

second into the bypassed reach; (3) provide upstream eel passage at the 

project, following installation of an upstream eel passage facility at 

the downstream Woonsocket Falls Project No. 2972; (4) implement 

nighttime turbine shutdowns to facilitate downstream eel passage; and 

(5) develop procedures for operating the outlet gates to address water 

quality in the power canal.

    o. A copy of the application is available for review at the 

Commission in the Public Reference Room or 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. For assistance, contact 

FERC Online Support. A copy is also available for inspection and 

reproduction at the address in item h above.

    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.

    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.



Issue Deficiency Letter (if necessary)...............     December 2018.

Request Additional Information.......................     December 2018.

Issue Acceptance Letter..............................        March 2019.

Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments................        April 2019.

Request Additional Information (if necessary)........         June 2019.

Issue Scoping Document 2.............................         July 2019.

Issue Notice of Ready for Environmental Analysis.....         July 2019.

Commission issues Environmental Assessment...........      January 2020.

 





[[Page 52826]]



    q. 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: October 12, 2018.

Kimberly D. Bose,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 2018-22728 Filed 10-17-18; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717-01-P