E9-5556. CRD Hydroelectric, LLC; Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission, Soliciting Additional Study Requests, and Establishing a Deadline for Submission of Final Amendments

March 9, 2009.

Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.

a. Type of Application: Original License.

b. Project No.: 12576-004.

c. Date Filed: February 24, 2009.

d. Applicant: CRD Hydroelectric, LLC.

e. Name of Project: Red Rock Hydroelectric Project.

f. Location: On the Des Moines River, in Marion County, Iowa. The project would be located at U.S. Army Corps of Engineer facilities.

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

h. Applicant Contact: Ms. Douglas A. Spaulding, Nelson Energy LLC, 8441 Wayzata Blvd., Suite 101, Golden Valley, MN 55426; [phone].

i. FERC Contact: Timothy Konnert, [e-mail], [phone].

j. Cooperating Agencies: We are asking Federal, State, and local agencies and Indian tribes 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. 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 a factual basis for complete analysis of the application on its merits, the resource agency, Indian tribe, or person must file a request for the study with the Commission no later than 60 days from the application filing date, and serve a copy of the request on the applicant.

l. Deadline for filing additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status: April 27, 2009.

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

Additional study requests may be filed electronically via the Internet in lieu of paper. The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. See 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the Commission's Web site (http://www.ferc.gov) under the “eFiling” link. After logging into the eFiling system, select “Comment on Filing” from the Filing Type Selection screen and continue with the filing process.

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

n. The proposed Red Rock Hydroelectric Project would be located at the existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Red Rock dam, which was constructed by the Corps in 1969 for flood control. The existing Corps facilities consist of: (1) A 110-foot-high, 6,260-foot-long earth-fill dam with a 241-foot-long gated ogee spillway equipped with five 45-foot-high tainter gates; and (2) a 15,253-acre reservoir at a normal conservation pool water surface elevation of 742.0 feet National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929.

The proposed project would utilize the head created by the existing Corps dam and consist of: (1) A new, approximately 127-foot-long by 19-foot-wide intake structure connected to; (2) three new 19-foot-diameter, approximately 211-foot-long penstocks passing through the left side of the spillway leading to; (3) a new 59-foot-long by 132-foot-wide powerhouse located directly downstream of the existing spillway structure containing three new 12.13-megawatt (MW) generating units for a total generating capacity of 36.4 MW; (4) a new approximately 8.4-mile-long, 69-kilovolt transmission line; and (5) appurtenant facilities. The estimated average annual generation would be 158,000 megawatt hours.

The project would be operated in run-of-river mode in that it would have no storage and only use flows released by the Corps in accordance with its present operations.

o. A copy of the application is on file with the Commission and is available for public inspection. This filing may also be viewed on the Web at http://www.ferc.gov using the “eLibrary” link. Enter the docket number, excluding the last three digits in the docket number filed to access the documents. For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at [e-mail] or toll free at [phone] or for TTY, contact [phone]. A copy is also available for inspection and reproduction at the address in item h above.

p. You may also register online at http://www.ferc.gov/​docs-filing/​esubscription.asp to be notified via e-mail of new filings and issuances related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC Online Support.

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. The Commission staff proposes to issue one environmental assessment rather than issue a draft and final EA. Comments, terms and conditions, recommendations, prescriptions, and reply comments, if any, will be addressed in an EA. Staff intends to give at least 30 days for entities to comment on the EA, and will take into consideration all comments received on the EA before final action is taken on the license application.

Issue Acceptance or Deficiency Letter—May 2009.

Issue Scoping Document—October 2009.

Notice of application is ready for environmental analysis—January 2010.

Notice of the availability of the EA—November 2010.

Final amendments: 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.

Kimberly D. Bose,

Secretary.