[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7983-7985]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02809]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 2426-227]


California Department of Water Resources and Los Angeles 
Department of Water and Power; Notice of Application Tendered for 
Filing with the Commission 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.: 2426-227.
    c. Date filed: January 30, 2020.
    d. Co-Applicants: California Department of Water Resources and Los 
Angeles Department of Water and Power.
    e. Name of Project: South SWP Hydropower Project,
    f. Location: Along the West Branch of the California Aqueduct, and 
along Piru Creek and Castaic Creek, tributaries to the Santa Clara 
River, in Los Angeles County, California. The project currently 
occupies 2,790 acres of federal land administered by the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as part of the Angeles 
National Forest and the Los Padres National Forest; and 17 acres of 
federal land administered by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of 
Land Management.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791 (a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contacts: Gwen Knittweis, Chief, Hydropower License 
Planning and Compliance Office, California Department of Water 
Resources, P.O. Box 924836, Sacramento, California 94236-0001, (916) 
557-4554, or Gwen.Knittweis@water.ca.gov; and Simon Zewdu, Manager of 
Strategic Initiatives, Power Planning and Development, Los Angeles 
Department of Water and Power, 111 North Hope Street, Room 921, Los 
Angeles, CA 90012, (213) 367-0881, or Simon.Zewdu@ladwp.com.
    i. FERC Contact: Kyle Olcott at (202) 502-8963; or email at 
kyle.olcott@ferc.gov.
    j. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    k. The project consists of two developments: Warne Development and 
Castaic Development. The average annual generation of the South SWP 
Project from 2007 to 2017 was 304 gigawatt-hours (GWh) at the Warne 
powerplant and 379 GWh at the Castaic powerplant.

Warne Development

    The major features of the Warne Development include: (1) Quail 
Lake, (2) Lower Quail Canal, (3) Peace Valley pipeline intake 
embankment, (4) Peace Valley pipeline, (5) Gorman bypass channel, (6) 
the William E. Warne powerplant (Warne powerplant), (7) switchyard, (8) 
the transmission line that interconnects Warne powerplant with the 
Southern California Edison (SCE) Pastoria-Pardee transmission line, and 
(9) appurtenant facilities.
    Quail Lake is a small regulating reservoir along the State Water 
Project (SWP) that was created by constructing an embankment along a 
sag pond formed by the San Andreas fault. The lake is located 5 miles 
southwest of the bifurcation of the East and West branches of the SWP. 
Quail Lake has a maximum storage capacity of 8,790 acre-feet and a 
surface area of about 290 acres. The Quail Lake outlet into Lower Quail 
canal is a double-box culvert structure that passes beneath State 
Highway 138. Quail Lake and Lower Quail canal serve as a forebay to 
Warne powerplant. The Lower Quail canal has an emergency outflow weir 
that is described below, and a spillway is not required for Quail Lake.
    Water released from Quail Lake through the Quail Lake outlet flows 
into the 2-mile-long Lower Quail canal. The concrete-lined canal serves 
as a conveyance to the Peace Valley pipeline intake and is the forebay 
for the Warne powerplant. Lower Quail canal has a bottom width of 24 
feet, northern embankment height of approximately 50 feet, southern 
embankment height of about 40 feet, and maximum flow capacity of 3,129 
cubic feet per second (cfs). The Lower Quail canal storage capacity is 
1,150 acre-feet. An ungated emergency overflow weir is located on the 
north side of Lower Quail canal. If an unplanned release occurs, water 
can be discharged over the ungated weir into a detention basin located 
to the west and adjacent to the southernmost section of Lower Quail 
Canal.
    The Peace Valley pipeline begins at the Peace Valley pipeline 
intake embankment. The Peace Valley pipeline intake embankment is a 
zoned earth and rockfill embankment at the downstream end of the Lower 
Quail canal. The Peace Valley pipeline intake embankment is 50 feet 
tall, with a crest length of 350 feet, and crest elevation of 3,330 
feet.
    SWP water flowing from Quail Lake through Lower Quail canal is 
routed into the Peace Valley pipeline to Warne powerplant and then to 
Pyramid Lake. The Peace Valley pipeline, which has a 12-foot-diameter 
and is completely underground, serves as the penstock to the Warne 
powerplant. It extends about 5.5 miles from the Peace Valley pipeline 
intake structure to the Warne powerplant. In the event of a Peace 
Valley pipeline outage or scheduled SWP water releases exceeding the 
pipeline's capacity, the water is routed through the Gorman bypass 
channel directly into Pyramid Lake.
    The Gorman bypass channel flow capacity is 700 cfs and conveys SWP 
water from Lower Quail canal to Pyramid Lake, bypassing the Peace 
Valley pipeline and Warne powerplant, when necessary, with an alignment 
generally paralleling that of the Peace Valley pipeline. The man-made 
channel begins at the Peace Valley pipeline intake embankment and 
crosses Interstate 5 about 0.7 mile downstream from the embankment. 
Local drainage, if any, drains into the bypass channel near Interstate 
5.
    The Warne powerplant, an above-ground, steel-reinforced, concrete 
powerhouse, is located at the northern (upstream) end of Pyramid Lake, 
at the terminus of the Peace Valley pipeline. The powerplant has two 
37.5-MW Pelton-type generating units. Each turbine has a rated head of 
650 feet, runner speed of 200 revolutions per minute (rpm), rated 
output of 51,000 horsepower (hp), and a rated discharge of 782 cfs. The 
total combined flow capacity for the powerplant is 1,564 cfs.
    The project includes a 3-mile-long, single-circuit, 220-kilovolt 
(kV) transmission line that connects output from the project through 
the Warne switchyard to SCE's Pardee-Pastoria transmission line. The 
line is built on steel lattice towers along a 150-foot-wide right-of-
way. The Warne switchyard is located west and immediately adjacent to 
the Warne powerplant and contains two generator step-up transformers.

[[Page 7984]]

Castaic Development

    The major features of the Castaic Development include: (1) Pyramid 
dam, (2) Pyramid Lake, (3) the Angeles tunnel and seven penstocks, (4) 
the Castaic powerplant and switchyard, (5) the Elderberry forebay and 
dam, (6) storm bypass channel and check dams, (7) the transmission 
lines that interconnect Castaic switchyard with the Independent System 
Operator power grid, and (8) appurtenant facilities. DWR owns and 
operates the facilities above the surge chamber at the southeastern end 
of the Angeles tunnel, and LADWP owns and operates the remainder of the 
facilities, including the surge chamber.
    Pyramid dam, at the southern end of Pyramid Lake, is a 1,090-foot-
long, 400-foot-high zoned earth and rock fill dam. The crest of the dam 
is 35 feet wide with an elevation of 2,606 feet. Water is typically 
released from a low-level outlet to an 18-mile-long section of Piru 
Creek (Pyramid reach), which extends from Pyramid dam to the NMWSE of 
Lake Piru.
    Pyramid dam has two spillways, a gate-controlled spillway, and an 
uncontrolled emergency spillway. The gated spillway is controlled by a 
single radial gate that measures 40 feet wide by 31 feet tall and 
consists of a concrete-lined chute terminating in a flip bucket. The 
low-level outlet works use the stream bypass tunnel (diversion tunnel) 
used during construction of the dam. This stream release facility is a 
15-foot-diameter, concrete-lined tunnel about 1,350 feet long through 
the right abutment of the dam and is used for downstream releases to 
Pyramid reach. Seepage through the dam is also collected at the toe of 
the dam, where it is gaged before being released into Pyramid reach. 
The maximum safe, designed release from the low-level outlet of Pyramid 
dam to Pyramid reach is 18,000 cfs.
    Pyramid Lake serves as regulated storage for the Castaic 
powerplant. At a NMWSE of 2,578 feet, Pyramid Lake has a storage 
capacity of 169,902 acre-feet and a usable storage capacity of 22,221 
acre-feet. Pyramid Lake also serves as emergency storage for the SWP. 
The lake has a normal maximum surface area of approximately 1,300 
acres, a shoreline length of approximately 21 miles, and a maximum 
depth of approximately 280 feet. Pyramid Lake receives natural inflow 
into the west arm of the lake from Piru Creek, and a combination of 
natural and SWP water inflows into the north arm of the lake from 
Gorman bypass channel and Gorman Creek.
    Angeles tunnel, the principal outlet from Pyramid Lake, supplies 
water to the Castaic powerplant in the generating mode and returns 
water to the lake from Elderberry forebay when the powerplant is 
operating in the pumping mode. Angeles tunnel is 7.2 miles long, has a 
diameter of 30 feet, and has a maximum flow capacity of 18,400 cfs.
    The penstock assembly for the six units in the Castaic powerplant 
consists of a double trifurcation immediately downstream of the south 
portal of Angeles tunnel, a penstock shutoff valve on each branch of 
the trifurcations, and six 2,200-foot-long steel penstocks ranging in 
diameter from 9 feet to 13.5 feet serving the six powerhouse units 
(Unit Nos. 1-6). Unit No. 7 powerplant is served by a 1,900-foot-long 
steel penstock ranging in diameter from 7 feet to 9 feet branching from 
a Y-connection between the tunnel portal and the main trifurcation. 
Combined flow capacity for all seven penstocks is 17,840 cfs.
    The Castaic powerplant, an aboveground/underground, steel-
reinforced, concrete powerhouse, is located on the northern (upstream) 
end of Elderberry forebay and is a pump-generating plant with the 
ability to pump water back to Pyramid Lake using off-peak energy when 
it is economical to do so. Elderberry forebay serves as an afterbay for 
the Castaic powerplant while in generating mode and as a forebay while 
in pumping mode. Pyramid Lake serves as the upper reservoir for the 
powerplant.
    The powerplant has six Francis-type pump-turbine units each with a 
rated head of 1,048 feet, a runner speed of 257 rpm, a rated output of 
355,000 hp, and an estimated rated discharge of 3,500 cfs. It also has 
one Pelton-type pump starting turbine unit with a rated head of 950 
feet, a runner speed of 225 rpm, rated output of 69,000 hp, and an 
approximate rated discharge of 752 cfs. These seven units have a 
combined generating capacity of 1,275 MW with a plant hydraulic 
capacity of 17,840 cfs.
    Elderberry forebay dam is a 1,990-foot-long, 200-foot-high zoned 
earthfill dam. The crest of the dam is 25 feet wide with an elevation 
of 1,550 feet. The outlet tower, located approximately 400 feet 
upstream of Elderberry forebay dam, includes: One 5-foot-wide by 6-
foot-high main gate, six 8-foot-wide by 12-foot-high lower gates, two 
8-foot-wide by 9-foot-high upper gates, twelve 13-foot-wide by 12-foot-
high storm gates, and one 5-foot-wide by 6-foot-high guard gate. The 
outlet tower connects to a 21-foot-diameter conduit that runs under 
Elderberry forebay dam and releases water into Castaic Lake (a non-
project facility).
    An overflow weir built into a natural topographic saddle located 
approximately 300 feet east of the left abutment of the dam serves as 
an uncontrolled emergency spillway. The crest elevation of the overflow 
weir is 1,540 feet, with a capacity of at least 12,000 cfs. Elderberry 
forebay dam, including this emergency spillway, is the most downstream 
project facility.
    Elderberry forebay serves as an afterbay for the Castaic powerplant 
when the plant is generating power, and as a forebay when the plant is 
pumping water back to Pyramid Lake. The forebay also receives a small 
amount of local inflow from Castaic Creek, which enters at the northern 
end of the reservoir. The remaining inflow to Elderberry forebay is SWP 
water from Pyramid Lake conveyed via the Angeles tunnel. At a NMWSE of 
1,530 feet, Elderberry forebay has a storage capacity of 28,231 acre-
feet, a surface area of 500 acres, and a shoreline length of 7 miles.
    The Storm bypass channel is on Castaic Creek above Elderberry 
forebay and includes a series of three check-dam basins with a total 
area of approximately 21 acres, designed to capture sediment runoff 
during high flow events to reduce the accumulation of sediment near the 
powerplant and ensure the sustained efficiency of the Castaic 
powerplant operation.
    The Castaic switchyard is a fenced switchyard located adjacent to 
the powerhouse. An 11.4-mile-long, 230-kV transmission line delivers 
energy from the Castaic switchyard to the Haskell Junction substation 
and transmits energy to the Castaic powerplant when in the pump-back 
operating mode.

Co-Licensees' Proposed Modifications

    In their Final License Application, the co-licensees propose to add 
the following facilities to the project license: The existing Quail 
Detention Embankment, segments of some existing roads necessary for 
project operation and maintenance, and an existing streamflow gage 
located on Piru Creek downstream of Pyramid Dam. Additionally, the co-
licensees propose to remove the Warne Transmission Line from the 
project license.
    The co-licensees also propose to modify the project boundary to 
reduce the amount of land from 6,928 acres to 4,563.8 acres. The 
project, as proposed by the licensee, would reduce the amount of 
federal land from 2,790 acres to 2,007 acres of federal lands: 1,336 
acres administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 
Service, as part of the Angeles National Forest; 665 acres administered 
by the

[[Page 7985]]

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as part of the Los 
Padres National Forest; and 6.5 acres administered by the U.S. 
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
    l. 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.
    m. 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. 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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Milestone                           Target date
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice of Acceptance/Notice of Ready for     April 2020.
 Environmental Analysis.
Filing of recommendations, preliminary       June 2020.
 terms and conditions, and fishway
 prescriptions.
Commission issues Draft EIS................  December 2020.
Comments on Draft Environmental Impact       February 2021.
 Statement (EIS).
Modified terms and conditions..............  April 2021.
Commission issues Final EIS................  July 2021.
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    o. 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: February 6, 2020.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-02809 Filed 2-11-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P


