Price Dam Partnership, LTD; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment and Notice of Scoping and Soliciting Scoping Comments

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 12187-000]

Price Dam Partnership, LTD; Notice of Intent To Prepare an

Environmental Assessment and Notice of Scoping and Soliciting Scoping

Comments

April 13, 2004.

Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been

filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection:

a. Type of Application: Original Major License.

b. Project No.: 12187-000.

c. Date filed: June 3, 2002.

d. Applicant: Price Dam Partnership, LTD.

e. Name of Project: Price Dam Hydroelectric Project.

f. Location: Located on the Mississippi River in city of Alton,

Wood River Township, Madison County, Illinois. The proposed project

would be constructed on the U.S. Corps of

[[Page 21097]]

Engineers (Corps) Melvin Price Locks & Dam and the nearby Illinois

shoreline of the Mississippi River and would affect a portion of 7.8

acres of federal lands (including six of the nine existing gate bays in

the dam and a portion of the Illinois shoreline for the construction of

a proposed transmission line).

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

h. Applicant Contact: Mr. James B. Price; Price Dam Partnership

LTD; P.O. Box 5550; Aiken, SC 29804-5550; (803) 642-5581.

i. FERC Contact: Lee Emery, (202) 502-9379 or [email protected].

j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: 45 days from the issuance

date of this notice.

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. Please indicate the project

number (P-12187) on any comments or motions filed.

The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all

interveners 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 intervener 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.

Scoping comments 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.

k. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this

time.

l. The proposed Price Dam Project would use the U.S. Corps of

Engineers' Melvin Price Locks & Dam and Reservoir, and would consist of

the following facilities: (1) 192 individual, turbine/generator units

grouped in six moveable steel modules 108.9-feet-long by 26.2-feet-wide

by 44.0-feet-high, (a) each module contains 32 turbine/generator sets

(two horizontal rows of 16 units each) that will be installed in

stoplog slots on adjacent piers upstream from the Taintor gates, and

(b) each turbine/generator unit includes a 550 kilowatt bulb-type

generator, a fixed-blade propeller turbine, and a single draft tube for

each two turbine/generating units; (2) flexible power cables, each

connecting the six 32-turbine/generator-sets to six 7.2 kilovolt (kV)

transformer and breaker sets on an adjacent pier; (3) lifting/access

columns at the end of each module; (4) six air-operated spillway gates,

7-feet-high by 96-feet-long, installed on top of each module with each

gate containing an inflatable rubber bladder; (5) a hallway housing the

station service transformer, motor control center, and control system;

(6) a slave terminal at the lockmaster's office and a control station

located on the dam superstructure; (7) a 6.9-kV/138-kV step-up

transformer located on a platform on the dam axis at elevation 479 feet

National Geodetic Vertical Datum; (8) a mobile, 1,000 metric ton crane

with an auxiliary crane riding on top of the module cranes' lifting

beam; these cranes would lower and raise the power modules and operate

the trash rake; (9) a fish bypass on each module; (10) a trashrack

assembly with a two-inch clear spacing between the bars, and a crane-

operated trash rake; (11) a 500-kilowatt generator; (12) a 0.8-mile-

long, 138-kV transmission line connecting the project power to a

Ameren, Incorporated substation; and (13) appurtenant facilities. The

average annual generation is estimated to be 319,000 megawatt-hours and

have an installed generating capacity of 92 megawatts (MW). All

generated power would be sold to a local utility connected to the grid.

m. 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 [email protected] or toll-free at 866-

208-3676, or for TTY, 202-502-8659. 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/

esuscribenow.htm to be notified via e-mail of new filings and issuances

related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC

Online Support.

n. Scoping Process: The Commission intends to prepare a single

Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed project in accordance

with the National Environmental Policy Act. The EA will consider both

site-specific and cumulative environmental impacts and reasonable

alternatives to the proposed action.

The Commission staff does not propose to conduct any on-site

scoping meetings at this time. Instead, we will conduct paper scoping

by soliciting comments, recommendations, information, and alternatives

by issuing a Scoping Document (SD).

Copies of the SD outlining the subject areas to be addressed in the

EA were distributed to the parties on the Commission's mailing list.

Copies of the SD may be viewed on the web at http://www.ferc.gov using

the ``eLibrary'' link.

Magalie R. Salas,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. E4-874 Filed 4-19-04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717-01-P