2021-20137. Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc; 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 ...

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.: 5089-027.

c. Date filed: August 31, 2021.

d. Applicant: Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Fall River).

e. Name of Project: Felt Hydroelectric Project.

f. Location: On the Teton River, near the town of Tetonia, in Teton County, Idaho. The project occupies 54.7 acres of federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

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

h. Applicant Contact: Nicholas Josten, 2742 Saint Charles Ave., Idaho Falls, Idaho 83404; [phone].

i. FERC Contact: John Matkowski 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 requests and requests for cooperating agency status: October 30, 2021.

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: Felt Hydroelectric Project (P-5089-027).

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

n. Project Description: The existing Felt Project consists of: (1) A 125-foot-long, 12-foot-high concrete dam that includes the following sections: (a) 25-foot-wide sluiceway section with a 4-foot-wide fish ladder and a 14-foot-wide corrugated steel radial gate and (b) a 96-foot-wide uncontrolled overflow spillway with a crest elevation of 5,530-feet mean sea level (msl); (2) a 7-acre impoundment with a storage capacity of 28 acre-feet at a normal water surface elevation of 5,530-feet msl; (3) a 178-foot-long, 8.5-foot-deep fish screen structure equipped with a bar rack with 3/8-inch clear bar spacing and diamond mesh screen; (4) three intake openings located behind the fish screen each equipped with 10-foot-wide intake gates and 10-foot-wide trash racks with 3-inch clear bar spacing; (5) three, 8-foot-square unlined rock tunnels connecting the intakes to penstocks and consisting of: (a) A 180-foot-long Tunnel No. 1 connecting to a 280-foot-long, 78-inch-diameter steel penstock that bifurcates into two, 180-foot-long, 60-inch-diameter steel penstocks that connect to Powerhouse No. 1; and (b) A 180-foot-long Tunnel No. 2 and a 200-foot-long Tunnel No. 3 each connecting to a 1,750-foot-long, 96-inch-diameter steel penstock that connects to Powerhouse No. 2; (6) an 83-foot-long, 26-foot-wide, 13-foot-high reinforced concrete Powerhouse No. 1 containing two horizontal Francis turbine-generator units with a combined generating capacity of 1,950 kilowatts (kW); (7) a 36-foot-long, 36-foot-wide, 25-foot-high reinforced concrete Powerhouse No. 2 containing two vertical Francis turbine-generator units with a combined generating capacity of 5,500 kW; (8) two tailrace channels discharging to the Teton River from Powerhouses No. 1 and No. 2; (9) a 1,500-foot-long, 4.16 kilovolt (kV) overhead transmission line connecting Powerhouse No. 1 to a transformer located next to Powerhouse No. 2; (10) a 2,000-foot-long, 24.9 kV overhead transmission line leading from the transformer to the interconnection point; and (11) appurtenant facilities.

The 7.45-megawatt Felt Project is operated in run-of-river mode and generates an average of 33,100 megawatt-hours per year. A continuous minimum flow is released below the dam according to the following schedule: 20 cubic feet per second (cfs) from July 1 to March 14 and 50 cfs from March 15 to June 30.

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-5089). At this time, the Commission has suspended access to the Commission's Public Reference Room due to the proclamation declaring a National Emergency concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) issued by the President on March 13, 2020. 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: The application will be processed according to the following preliminary schedule. Revisions to the schedule will be made as appropriate.

Issue Deficiency Letter (if necessary)— October 2021

Request Additional Information (if needed)—October 2021

Issue Notice of Acceptance—January 2021

Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments—February 2022

Issue Scoping Document 2—May 2022

Issue Notice of Ready for Environmental Analysis—May 2022

q. 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: September 13, 2021.

Kimberly D. Bose,

Secretary.