[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 13, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6171-6172]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-02849]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 14795-002]


Notice of Scoping Meetings and Environmental Site Review and 
Soliciting Scoping Comments; Shell Energy North America (US), L.P.

    Take notice that the following hydroelectric applications have been 
filed with Commission and are available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: Original major license.
    b. Project No.: 14795-002.
    c. Date Filed: November 1, 2017.
    d. Applicant: Shell Energy North America (US), L.P.
    e. Name of Project: Hydro Battery Pearl Hill Pumped Storage 
Project.
    f. Location: On the Columbia River and Rufus Woods Lake, near 
Bridgeport, Douglas County, Washington. The upper reservoir and 
penstock would be located on state lands, while the lower reservoir and 
power generation and pumping equipment would be located on Rufus Woods 
Lake, a reservoir operated by the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps).
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Kent Watt, Shell US Hosting Company, Shell 
Woodcreek Office, 150 North Dairy Ashford, Houston, TX 77079, (832) 
337-1160, [email protected].
    i. FERC Contact: Ryan Hansen, 888 1st St. NE, Washington, DC 20426, 
(202) 502-8074, [email protected].
    j. Deadline for Filing Scoping Comments: April 6, 2018.
    The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file 
scoping comments using the Commission's eFiling system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp. Commenters can submit brief 
comments up to 6,000 characters, without prior registration, using the 
eComment system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment.asp. 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. The first page of any filing should include 
docket number P-14795-002.
    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 proposed project would utilize the Corps' existing Rufus 
Woods Lake Reservoir, and would consist of the following new 
facilities: (1) A 300-foot-diameter, 20-foot-tall lined corrugated 
steel tank upper reservoir with a storage capacity of 26.5 acre-feet; 
(2) a 3-foot-diameter, 3,400-foot-long above-ground carbon steel 
penstock transitioning to a 3-foot-diameter, 2,700-foot-long buried 
carbon steel penstock; (3) a 77-foot-long, 77-foot-wide structural 
steel power platform housing five 2,400 horsepower vertical turbine 
pumps, one 5 megawatt twin-jet Pelton turbine and synchronous 
generator, and accompanying electrical equipment; (4) five vertical 
turbine pump intakes, each fitted with a 27-inch-diameter by 94-inch-
long T-style fish screen; (5) a 2,500-foot-long, 24.9-kilovolt 
transmission line. which would be partially buried and partially 
affixed to the penstock, interconnecting to an existing non-project 
transmission line; (6) approximately 3,847 feet of gravel project 
access road; and (7) appurtenant facilities. The average annual 
generation is estimated to be 24 gigawatt-hours.
    m. 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.
    n. Scoping Process
    The Commission intends to prepare an environmental assessment (EA) 
in cooperation with the Corps \1\ on the project in accordance with the 
National Environmental Policy Act. The EA will consider both site-
specific and cumulative environmental impacts and reasonable 
alternatives to the proposed action.
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    \1\ In a letter filed on January 24, 2018, the Corps requested 
cooperating agency status.
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Scoping Meetings

    FERC staff will conduct one agency scoping meeting and one public 
meeting. The agency scoping meeting will focus on resource agency and 
non-governmental organization (NGO) concerns, while the public scoping 
meeting is primarily for public input. All interested individuals, 
organizations, and agencies are invited to attend one or both of the 
meetings, and to assist the staff in identifying the scope of the 
environmental issues that should be analyzed in the EA. The times and 
locations of these meetings are as follows:

Agency Scoping Meeting

    Date: March 7, 2018.
    Time: 9:00 a.m. (PST).
    Place: Howard's on the River.
    Address: 245 Lakeshore Drive, Pateros, WA 98846.

Public Scoping Meeting

    Date: March 7, 2018.
    Time: 6:00 p.m. (PST).
    Place: Howard's on the River.
    Address: 245 Lakeshore Drive, Pateros, WA 98846.
    Copies of the Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the subject areas to 
be addressed in the EA 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 FERC staff will conduct a project environmental 
site

[[Page 6172]]

review beginning at 9:00 a.m. on March 8, 2018. All interested 
individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to attend. All 
participants should meet at the Quick-E Mart parking lot at 2606 Foster 
Creek Ave., Bridgeport, WA 98813. All participants are responsible for 
their own transportation to the site. Anyone with questions about the 
site review should contact JT Steenkamp at (403) 384-7517 or email at 
[email protected].

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the EA; (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 EA, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in 
support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource 
issues to be addressed in the EA; 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, organizations, 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 EA.

    Dated: February 5, 2018.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-02849 Filed 2-12-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P


