Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 201 / Thursday, October 17, 2024 / Notices 83681 

o. Comments, Protests, or Motions to 

Intervene: Anyone may submit 

comments, a protest, or a motion to 

intervene in accordance with the 

requirements of Rules of Practice and 

Procedure, 18 CFR 385.210, 385.211, 

385.214, respectively. In determining 

the appropriate action to take, the 

Commission will consider all protests or 

other comments filed, but only those 

who file a motion to intervene in 

accordance with the Commission’s 

Rules may become a party to the 

proceeding. Any comments, protests, or 

motions to intervene must be received 

on or before the specified comment date 

for the particular application. 

p. Filing and Service of Documents: 

Any filing must (1) bear in all capital 

letters the title ‘‘COMMENTS’’, 

‘‘PROTEST’’, or ‘‘MOTION TO 

INTERVENE’’ as applicable; (2) set forth 

in the heading the name of the applicant 

and the project number of the 

application to which the filing 

responds; (3) furnish the name, address, 

and telephone number of the person 

commenting, protesting or intervening; 

and (4) otherwise comply with the 

requirements of 18 CFR 385.2001 

through 385.2005. All comments, 

motions to intervene, or protests must 

set forth their evidentiary basis. Any 

filing made by an intervenor must be 

accompanied by proof of service on all 

persons listed in the service list 

prepared by the Commission in this 

proceeding, in accordance with 18 CFR 

385.2010. 

q. The Commission’s Office of Public 

Participation (OPP) supports meaningful 

public engagement and participation in 

Commission proceedings. OPP can help 

members of the public, including 

landowners, environmental justice 

communities, Tribal members and 

others, access publicly available 

information and navigate Commission 

processes. For public inquiries and 

assistance with making filings such as 

interventions, comments, or requests for 

rehearing, the public is encouraged to 

contact OPP at (202) 502–6595 or OPP@

ferc.gov. 

Dated: October 10, 2024. 

Debbie-Anne A. Reese, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2024–23942 Filed 10–16–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Project No. 2587–066] 

Northern States Power Company; 

Notice of Application Accepted for 

Filing, Soliciting Motions To Intervene 

and Protests, Ready for Environmental 

Analysis, and Soliciting Comments, 

Recommendations, Terms and 

Conditions, and Prescriptions 

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.: 2587–066. 

c. Date Filed: December 30, 2022. 

d. Applicant: Northern States Power 

Company (Northern States). 

e. Name of Project: Superior Falls 

Hydroelectric Project (project). 

f. Location: On the Montreal River in 

Gogebic County, Michigan and Iron 

County, Wisconsin. 

g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power 

Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)–825(r). 

h. Applicant Contact: Donald R. 

Hartinger, Director—Renewable 

Operation, 414 Nicollet Mall FL 2, 

Minneapolis, MN 55401; telephone at 

(651) 261–7668; email at 

donald.r.hartinger@xcelenergy.com. 

i. FERC Contact: Nicholas Ettema, 

Project Coordinator, Great Lakes Branch, 

Division of Hydropower Licensing; 

telephone at (312) 596–4447; email at 

nicholas.ettema@ferc.gov. 

j. Deadline for filing motions to 

intervene and protests, comments, 

recommendations, terms and 

conditions, and prescriptions: 60 days 

from the issuance date of this notice; 

reply comments are due 105 days from 

the issuance date of this notice. 

The Commission strongly encourages 

electronic filing. Please file motions to 

intervene and protests, comments, 

recommendations, terms and 

conditions, and prescriptions using the 

Commission’s eFiling system at https:// 

ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx. 

Commenters can submit brief comments 

up to 6,000 characters, without prior 

registration, using the eComment system 

at https://ferconline.ferc.gov/ 

QuickComment.aspx. For assistance, 

please contact FERC Online Support at 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov, (866) 

208–3676 (toll free), or (202) 502–8659 

(TTY). In lieu of electronic filing, you 

may submit a paper copy. Submissions 

sent via the U.S. Postal Service must be 

addressed to: Debbie-Anne A. Reese, 

Acting Secretary, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street 

NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. 

Submissions sent via any other carrier 

must be addressed to: Debbie-Anne A. 

Reese, Acting Secretary, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins 

Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852. All 

filings must clearly identify the project 

name and docket number on the first 

page: Superior Falls Hydroelectric 

Project (P–2587–066). 

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. 

k. This application has been accepted 

for filing and is now ready for 

environmental analysis. 

l. Project Description: The project 

includes a dam that consists of: (1) a 42- 

foot-long spillway; (2) a 22-foot-long 

section with an 18-foot-long Tainter 

gate; (3) an 18.6-foot-long section with 

an 11.5-foot-long ogee spillway with a 

crest elevation of 740.2 feet National 

Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 

29), a 5-foot-long sluice gate, and a 4- 

foot-long sluice gate; (4) a 40.5-foot-long 

section with two 16-foot-long Tainter 

gates; and (5) a 70-foot-long nonoverflow section with a 23-foot-long 

intake structure with a 15-foot-long gate 

and a trashrack with 1-inch clear bar 

spacing. The dam creates an 

impoundment with a surface area of 

16.3 acres at an elevation of 740.2 feet 

NGVD 29. 

From the impoundment, water flows 

through the intake structure to a 1,697- 

foot-long conduit with a surge tank, and 

then to two 207-foot-long penstocks. 

From the penstocks, water is conveyed 

to a 32-foot-long, 62-foot-wide 

powerhouse that contains two 825- 

kilowatt (kW) horizontal Francis 

turbine-generator units, for a total 

installed capacity of 1,650 kW. Water is 

discharged from the powerhouse to an 

approximately 80-foot-long tailrace. The 

project creates an approximately 1,900- 

foot-long bypassed reach of the 

Montreal River. 

Project recreation facilities include: 

(1) a hand-carry boat take-out site and 

an associated 5-vehicle parking area on 

the western shoreline of the 

impoundment, approximately 1,050 feet 

upstream of the dam; (2) a scenic 

overlook site on the eastern shoreline of 

the bypassed reach, approximately 

1,400 feet downstream of the dam; (3) a 


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83682 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 201 / Thursday, October 17, 2024 / Notices 

fishing area on the eastern shoreline of 

the tailrace; and (4) a parking area and 

access trails for the scenic overlook and 

fishing area. 

Electricity generated at the 

powerhouse is transmitted to the 

electric grid via a 200-foot-long, 2.4- 

kilovolt (kV) overhead transmission line 

and a 2.4/34.5-kV step-up transformer. 

The minimum and maximum hydraulic 

capacities of the powerhouse are 25 and 

220 cubic feet per second (cfs), 

respectively. The average annual energy 

production of the project from 2017 

through 2021 was 11,436.4 megawatthours. 

The current license requires Northern 

States to: (1) operate in a run-of-river 

mode, such that outflow from the 

project approximates inflow; (2) 

maintain a minimum impoundment 

surface elevation of 739.7 feet NGVD 29; 

(2) limit non-emergency impoundment 

drawdown rates to a maximum of 1 foot 

per 24 hours for the first 48 hours and 

0.5 foot per 24 hours thereafter, with the 

rate being evenly spread across the time 

period; (3) release an aesthetic flow of 

8 cfs to the bypassed reach from the 

Saturday before Memorial Day to 

October 15, except on weekends and 

holidays, when an aesthetic flow of 20 

cfs is released from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 

p.m. The current license also requires 

Northern States to implement a plan to 

monitor flows in the bypassed reach, a 

recreation plan to operate and maintain 

the recreation facilities, a wildlife 

management plan to protect any 

federally and state listed species, and a 

plan to avoid or minimize disturbances 

to the quality of the existing visual 

resources of the project area. 

Northern States proposes to revise the 

project boundary around the 

impoundment to follow a contour 

elevation of 740.2 feet NGVD 29, and 

include approximately 4 acres of land 

east of the impoundment. The proposed 

changes would result in a reduction in 

the total acreage of the project boundary 

upstream of the project dam, from 296.4 

acres to 22.2 acres. Downstream of the 

project dam, Northern States proposes 

to: (1) add 3.9 acres of land and water 

near the powerhouse; (2) remove 35 

acres of land east of State Highway 122; 

and (4) remove 11.1 acres of land on the 

western shoreline of the bypassed reach. 

Northern States proposes to: (1) 

continue to operate the projects in runof-river mode, maintain a minimum 

impoundment elevation of 739.7 feet 

NGVD 29, and release minimum 

aesthetic flows; (2) develop an operation 

compliance monitoring plan; (3) 

develop an invasive species 

management plan that includes biennial 

surveys for invasive species; (4) protect 

bald eagles by scheduling any grounddisturbing activities at recreation sites to 

occur between August 1 and January 15 

for any work within 660 feet of any 

eagle nest; (5) avoid the removal of trees 

greater than 3 inches in diameter from 

June 1 through July 31, and follow the 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 

guidance to protect the northern longeared bat and tricolored bat; (6) 

continue to maintain project recreation 

facilities, but relocate the existing handcarry boat take-out site and parking area 

on the western shoreline of the 

impoundment to the eastern shoreline 

of the impoundment, approximately 300 

feet upstream of the dam; (7) install new 

directional signage for the new boat 

take-out site and update recreation and 

safety signage to comply with Part 8 of 

the Commission’s regulations; and (8) 

develop a historic properties 

management plan that includes 

shoreline erosion surveys every 5 years. 

m. A copy of the application can 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 (i.e., P–2587). For assistance, 

contact FERC Online Support. 

n. Anyone may submit comments, a 

protest, or a motion to intervene in 

accordance with the requirements of 

Rules of Practice and Procedure, 18 CFR 

385.210, .211, and .214. In determining 

the appropriate action to take, the 

Commission will consider all protests or 

other comments filed, but only those 

who file a motion to intervene in 

accordance with the Commission’s 

Rules may become a party to the 

proceeding. Any comments, protests, or 

motions to intervene must be received 

on or before the specified comment date 

for the particular application. 

All filings must (1) bear in all capital 

letters the title ‘‘PROTEST,’’ ‘‘MOTION 

TO INTERVENE,’’ ‘‘COMMENTS,’’ 

‘‘REPLY COMMENTS,’’ 

‘‘RECOMMENDATIONS,’’ ‘‘TERMS 

AND CONDITIONS,’’ or 

‘‘PRESCRIPTIONS;’’ (2) set forth in the 

heading the name of the applicant and 

the project number of the application to 

which the filing responds; (3) furnish 

the name of the person submitting the 

filing; and (4) otherwise comply with 

the requirements of 18 CFR 385.2001 

through 385.2005. All comments, 

recommendations, terms and conditions 

or prescriptions must set forth their 

evidentiary basis and otherwise comply 

with the requirements of 18 CFR 4.34(b). 

Agencies may obtain copies of the 

application directly from the applicant. 

A copy of any protest or motion to 

intervene must be served upon each 

representative of the applicant specified 

in the particular application. A copy of 

all other filings in reference to this 

application must be accompanied by 

proof of service on all persons listed on 

the service list prepared by the 

Commission in this proceeding, in 

accordance with 18 CFR 4.34(b) and 

385.2010. 

The Commission’s Office of Public 

Participation (OPP) supports meaningful 

public engagement and participation in 

Commission proceedings. OPP can help 

members of the public, including 

landowners, environmental justice 

communities, Tribal members and 

others, access publicly available 

information and navigate Commission 

processes. For public inquiries and 

assistance with making filings such as 

interventions, comments, or requests for 

rehearing, the public is encouraged to 

contact OPP at (202) 502–6595 or OPP@

ferc.gov. 

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. 

o. The applicant must file no later 

than 60 days following the date of 

issuance of this notice: (1) a copy of the 

water quality certification; (2) a copy of 

the request for certification, including 

proof of the date on which the certifying 

agency received the request; or (3) 

evidence of waiver of water quality 

certification. 

p. Procedural Schedule: The 

application will be processed according 

to the following schedule. Revisions to 

the schedule will be made as 

appropriate. 

Milestone Target date 

Filing of Comments, Recommendations, Terms and 

Conditions, and Prescriptions.

December 2024. 

Filing of Reply Comments .......... January 2025. 

q. Final amendments to the 

application must be filed with the 

Commission no later than 30 days from 

the issuance date of this notice. 

Dated: October 10, 2024. 

Debbie-Anne A. Reese, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2024–23941 Filed 10–16–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 


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