2022-24347. Ketchikan Public Utilities; 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.: 1922-052.

c. Date filed: October 27, 2022.

d. Applicant: Ketchikan Public Utilities (KPU).

e. Name of Project: Beaver Falls Hydroelectric Project (project).

f. Location: On Beaver Falls Creek in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska. The project occupies 478.4 acres of United States lands administered by U.S. Forest Service.

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

h. Applicant Contact: Jennifer Holstrom, Senior Project Engineer, Ketchikan Public Utilities, 1065 Fair Street, Ketchikan, Alaska 99901; [phone]; or email at [e-mail].

i. FERC Contact: Kristen Sinclair at [phone], or [e-mail].

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 requestsand requests for cooperating agency status: December 26, 2022.

The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status using the Commission's eFiling system at https://ferconline.ferc.gov/​FERCOnline.aspx. For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at [e-mail], [phone] (toll free), or [phone] (TTY). In lieu of electronic filing, you may submit a paper copy. Submissions sent via the U.S. Postal Service must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. Submissions sent via any other carrier must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20852. All filings must clearly identify the project name and docket number on the first page: Beaver Falls Hydroelectric Project (P-1922-052).

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

n. Project Description: The existing Beaver Falls Project consists of two developments: Silvis and Beaver Falls. The Silvis development consists of: (1) a 60-foot-high, 135-foot-long concrete-face, rock-filled Upper Silvis Lake dam; (2) an 800-foot-long excavated rock spillway channel leading from Upper Silvis Lake to Lower Silvis Lake; (3) a 300-acre reservoir (Upper Silvis Lake) with gross storage capacity of approximately 38,000 acre-feet; (4) a 980-foot-long underground power tunnel connecting to a 342-foot-long, 36-inch-diameter steel penstock that conveys water to the Silvis Powerhouse; (5) a 30-feet by 40-feet by 25-feet-high Silvis powerhouse containing a single Francis-type turbine with a rated capacity of 2.1 megawatts; (6) a 150-foot-long trapezoidal shaped channel tailrace discharging into Lower Silvis Lake; (7) a 2,900-foot-long, 5-kilovolt submarine cable beneath Lower Silvis Lake; (8) a 7,000-foot-long, 34.5-kilovolt aerial transmission line; and (9) appurtenant facilities.

The Beaver Falls development consists of: (1) a 32-foot-high, 140-foot-long concrete-face, rock-filled Lower Silvis dam; (2) a spillway with an ungated control weir and unlined rock discharge channel; (3) a 67.5-acre reservoir (Lower Silvis Lake) with gross storage capacity of approximately 8,052 acre-feet; (4) a 3-foot-high, 40-foot-long concrete diversion dam on Beaver Falls Creek; (5) a 3,800-foot-long underground power tunnel connecting to a 3,610-foot-long above ground steel penstock that conveys water from Lower Silvis Lake to the Beaver Falls powerhouse and supplies water to Units 3 and 4 in the powerhouse; (6) a 225-foot-long adit that taps the 3,800-foot-long underground power tunnel and discharges water into Beaver Falls Creek approximately 500-feet upstream of the Beaver Falls diversion dam; (7) a 4,170-foot-long above ground steel penstock that conveys water from the Beaver Falls Creek diversion dam to the Beaver Falls powerhouse and supplies Unit 1 in the powerhouse; (8) a 30-feet by 147-feet by 25-feet-high Beaver Falls powerhouse containing three horizontal Pelton generating units with a total installed capacity of 5 MW (Units 1, 3 and 4; Unit 2 is decommissioned); (9) a Beaver Falls substation; and (10) appurtenant facilities. The project generates an annual average of 54,711,280 megawatt-hours.

o. In addition to publishing the full text of this notice in the Federal Register , the Commission provides all interested persons an opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this notice, as well as other documents in the proceeding ( e.g., license application) via the internet through the Commission's Home Page ( 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-1922). For assistance, contact FERC at [e-mail] or call toll-free, [phone] or [phone] (TTY).

You may also register online at https://ferconline.ferc.gov/​FERCOnline.aspx 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.

Additional Study Requests due	December 2022.
Issue Deficiency Letter (if necessary)	December 2022.
Request Additional Information (if needed)	December 2022.
Issue Notice of Acceptance	March 2023.
Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments	April 2023.
Issue Scoping Document 2	June 2023.
Issue Notice of Ready for Environmental Analysis	June 2023.

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: November 2, 2022.

Kimberly D. Bose,

Secretary.