E3-00672. Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission, Soliciting Additional Study Requests, and Establishing Procedural Schedule for Relicensing and a Deadline for Submission of Final Amendments

December 24, 2003.

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.: 2107-016.

c. Date Filed: December 16, 2003.

d. Applicant: Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

e. Name of Project: Poe Project.

f. Location: On the North Fork Feather River in Butte County, near Pulga, California. The project includes 144 acres of lands of the Plumas National Forest.

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

h. Applicant Contact: Tom Jereb, Project Manager, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, P.O. Box 770000, N11D, San Francisco, California 94177, [phone].

i. FERC Contact: John Mudre, [phone] or [e-mail].

j. Cooperating agencies: We are asking Federal, State, local, and tribal agencies with jurisdiction and/or special expertise with respect to environmental issues to cooperate with us in the preparation of the environmental document. Agencies who would like to request cooperating status should follow the instructions for filing comments described in item l below.

k. Pursuant to § 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 February 17, 2004.

All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: Magalie R. Salas, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.

The Commission's Rules of Practice require all intervenors 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 intervenor 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.

Additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status may be filed electronically via the Internet in lieu of paper. The Commission strongly encourages electronic filings. See 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the Commission's Web site (http://www.ferc.gov) under the “e-Filing” link.

m. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this time.

n. The project consists of: (1) The 400-foot-long, 60-foot-tall Poe Diversion Dam, including four 50-foot-wide by 41-foot-high radial flood gates, a 20-foot-wide by 7-foot-high small radial gate, and a small skimmer gate that is no longer used; (2) the 53-acre Poe Reservoir; (3) a concrete intake structure located on the shore of Poe Reservoir; (4) a pressure tunnel about 19 feet in diameter with a total length of about 33,000 feet; (5) a differential surge chamber located near the downstream end of the tunnel; (6) a steel underground penstock about 1,000 feet in length and about 14 feet in diameter; (7) a reinforced concrete powerhouse, 175-feet-long by 114-feet-wide, with two vertical-shaft Francis-type turbines rated at 76,000 horsepower connected to vertical-shaft synchronous generators rated at 79,350 kVA with a total installed capacity of 143 MW and an average annual generation of 584 gigawatt hours; (8) the 370-foot-long, 61-foot tall, concrete gravity Big Bend Dam; (9) the 42-acre Poe Afterbay Reservoir; and (10) appurtenant facilities.

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 Web site 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 at [e-mail] or toll-free at 1-866-208-3676, or for TTY, [phone]. 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. With this notice, we are initiating consultation with the California State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), as required by section 106, National Historic Preservation Act, and the regulations of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 36 CFR 800.4.

q. Procedural schedule and final amendments: The application will be processed according to the following Hydro Licensing Schedule. Revisions to the schedule will be made as appropriate.

Issue Acceptance/Deficiency Letter: January 2004.

Additional Study Requests, if needed: February 2004.

Scoping Meetings: May 2004.

Request Additional Information: June 2004.

Notice of application is ready for environmental analysis: October 2004.

Notice of the availability of the draft EIS: May 2005.

Notice of the availability of the final EIS: October 2005.

Ready for Commission's decision on the application: December 2005.

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.

Linda Mitry,

Acting Secretary.