[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7983-7985]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02809]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Project No. 2426-227]
California Department of Water Resources and Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power; Notice of Application Tendered for
Filing with the Commission 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: New Major License.
b. Project No.: 2426-227.
c. Date filed: January 30, 2020.
d. Co-Applicants: California Department of Water Resources and Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power.
e. Name of Project: South SWP Hydropower Project,
f. Location: Along the West Branch of the California Aqueduct, and
along Piru Creek and Castaic Creek, tributaries to the Santa Clara
River, in Los Angeles County, California. The project currently
occupies 2,790 acres of federal land administered by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as part of the Angeles
National Forest and the Los Padres National Forest; and 17 acres of
federal land administered by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of
Land Management.
g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. 791 (a)-825(r).
h. Applicant Contacts: Gwen Knittweis, Chief, Hydropower License
Planning and Compliance Office, California Department of Water
Resources, P.O. Box 924836, Sacramento, California 94236-0001, (916)
557-4554, or [email protected]; and Simon Zewdu, Manager of
Strategic Initiatives, Power Planning and Development, Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, 111 North Hope Street, Room 921, Los
Angeles, CA 90012, (213) 367-0881, or [email protected].
i. FERC Contact: Kyle Olcott at (202) 502-8963; or email at
[email protected].
j. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this
time.
k. The project consists of two developments: Warne Development and
Castaic Development. The average annual generation of the South SWP
Project from 2007 to 2017 was 304 gigawatt-hours (GWh) at the Warne
powerplant and 379 GWh at the Castaic powerplant.
Warne Development
The major features of the Warne Development include: (1) Quail
Lake, (2) Lower Quail Canal, (3) Peace Valley pipeline intake
embankment, (4) Peace Valley pipeline, (5) Gorman bypass channel, (6)
the William E. Warne powerplant (Warne powerplant), (7) switchyard, (8)
the transmission line that interconnects Warne powerplant with the
Southern California Edison (SCE) Pastoria-Pardee transmission line, and
(9) appurtenant facilities.
Quail Lake is a small regulating reservoir along the State Water
Project (SWP) that was created by constructing an embankment along a
sag pond formed by the San Andreas fault. The lake is located 5 miles
southwest of the bifurcation of the East and West branches of the SWP.
Quail Lake has a maximum storage capacity of 8,790 acre-feet and a
surface area of about 290 acres. The Quail Lake outlet into Lower Quail
canal is a double-box culvert structure that passes beneath State
Highway 138. Quail Lake and Lower Quail canal serve as a forebay to
Warne powerplant. The Lower Quail canal has an emergency outflow weir
that is described below, and a spillway is not required for Quail Lake.
Water released from Quail Lake through the Quail Lake outlet flows
into the 2-mile-long Lower Quail canal. The concrete-lined canal serves
as a conveyance to the Peace Valley pipeline intake and is the forebay
for the Warne powerplant. Lower Quail canal has a bottom width of 24
feet, northern embankment height of approximately 50 feet, southern
embankment height of about 40 feet, and maximum flow capacity of 3,129
cubic feet per second (cfs). The Lower Quail canal storage capacity is
1,150 acre-feet. An ungated emergency overflow weir is located on the
north side of Lower Quail canal. If an unplanned release occurs, water
can be discharged over the ungated weir into a detention basin located
to the west and adjacent to the southernmost section of Lower Quail
Canal.
The Peace Valley pipeline begins at the Peace Valley pipeline
intake embankment. The Peace Valley pipeline intake embankment is a
zoned earth and rockfill embankment at the downstream end of the Lower
Quail canal. The Peace Valley pipeline intake embankment is 50 feet
tall, with a crest length of 350 feet, and crest elevation of 3,330
feet.
SWP water flowing from Quail Lake through Lower Quail canal is
routed into the Peace Valley pipeline to Warne powerplant and then to
Pyramid Lake. The Peace Valley pipeline, which has a 12-foot-diameter
and is completely underground, serves as the penstock to the Warne
powerplant. It extends about 5.5 miles from the Peace Valley pipeline
intake structure to the Warne powerplant. In the event of a Peace
Valley pipeline outage or scheduled SWP water releases exceeding the
pipeline's capacity, the water is routed through the Gorman bypass
channel directly into Pyramid Lake.
The Gorman bypass channel flow capacity is 700 cfs and conveys SWP
water from Lower Quail canal to Pyramid Lake, bypassing the Peace
Valley pipeline and Warne powerplant, when necessary, with an alignment
generally paralleling that of the Peace Valley pipeline. The man-made
channel begins at the Peace Valley pipeline intake embankment and
crosses Interstate 5 about 0.7 mile downstream from the embankment.
Local drainage, if any, drains into the bypass channel near Interstate
5.
The Warne powerplant, an above-ground, steel-reinforced, concrete
powerhouse, is located at the northern (upstream) end of Pyramid Lake,
at the terminus of the Peace Valley pipeline. The powerplant has two
37.5-MW Pelton-type generating units. Each turbine has a rated head of
650 feet, runner speed of 200 revolutions per minute (rpm), rated
output of 51,000 horsepower (hp), and a rated discharge of 782 cfs. The
total combined flow capacity for the powerplant is 1,564 cfs.
The project includes a 3-mile-long, single-circuit, 220-kilovolt
(kV) transmission line that connects output from the project through
the Warne switchyard to SCE's Pardee-Pastoria transmission line. The
line is built on steel lattice towers along a 150-foot-wide right-of-
way. The Warne switchyard is located west and immediately adjacent to
the Warne powerplant and contains two generator step-up transformers.
[[Page 7984]]
Castaic Development
The major features of the Castaic Development include: (1) Pyramid
dam, (2) Pyramid Lake, (3) the Angeles tunnel and seven penstocks, (4)
the Castaic powerplant and switchyard, (5) the Elderberry forebay and
dam, (6) storm bypass channel and check dams, (7) the transmission
lines that interconnect Castaic switchyard with the Independent System
Operator power grid, and (8) appurtenant facilities. DWR owns and
operates the facilities above the surge chamber at the southeastern end
of the Angeles tunnel, and LADWP owns and operates the remainder of the
facilities, including the surge chamber.
Pyramid dam, at the southern end of Pyramid Lake, is a 1,090-foot-
long, 400-foot-high zoned earth and rock fill dam. The crest of the dam
is 35 feet wide with an elevation of 2,606 feet. Water is typically
released from a low-level outlet to an 18-mile-long section of Piru
Creek (Pyramid reach), which extends from Pyramid dam to the NMWSE of
Lake Piru.
Pyramid dam has two spillways, a gate-controlled spillway, and an
uncontrolled emergency spillway. The gated spillway is controlled by a
single radial gate that measures 40 feet wide by 31 feet tall and
consists of a concrete-lined chute terminating in a flip bucket. The
low-level outlet works use the stream bypass tunnel (diversion tunnel)
used during construction of the dam. This stream release facility is a
15-foot-diameter, concrete-lined tunnel about 1,350 feet long through
the right abutment of the dam and is used for downstream releases to
Pyramid reach. Seepage through the dam is also collected at the toe of
the dam, where it is gaged before being released into Pyramid reach.
The maximum safe, designed release from the low-level outlet of Pyramid
dam to Pyramid reach is 18,000 cfs.
Pyramid Lake serves as regulated storage for the Castaic
powerplant. At a NMWSE of 2,578 feet, Pyramid Lake has a storage
capacity of 169,902 acre-feet and a usable storage capacity of 22,221
acre-feet. Pyramid Lake also serves as emergency storage for the SWP.
The lake has a normal maximum surface area of approximately 1,300
acres, a shoreline length of approximately 21 miles, and a maximum
depth of approximately 280 feet. Pyramid Lake receives natural inflow
into the west arm of the lake from Piru Creek, and a combination of
natural and SWP water inflows into the north arm of the lake from
Gorman bypass channel and Gorman Creek.
Angeles tunnel, the principal outlet from Pyramid Lake, supplies
water to the Castaic powerplant in the generating mode and returns
water to the lake from Elderberry forebay when the powerplant is
operating in the pumping mode. Angeles tunnel is 7.2 miles long, has a
diameter of 30 feet, and has a maximum flow capacity of 18,400 cfs.
The penstock assembly for the six units in the Castaic powerplant
consists of a double trifurcation immediately downstream of the south
portal of Angeles tunnel, a penstock shutoff valve on each branch of
the trifurcations, and six 2,200-foot-long steel penstocks ranging in
diameter from 9 feet to 13.5 feet serving the six powerhouse units
(Unit Nos. 1-6). Unit No. 7 powerplant is served by a 1,900-foot-long
steel penstock ranging in diameter from 7 feet to 9 feet branching from
a Y-connection between the tunnel portal and the main trifurcation.
Combined flow capacity for all seven penstocks is 17,840 cfs.
The Castaic powerplant, an aboveground/underground, steel-
reinforced, concrete powerhouse, is located on the northern (upstream)
end of Elderberry forebay and is a pump-generating plant with the
ability to pump water back to Pyramid Lake using off-peak energy when
it is economical to do so. Elderberry forebay serves as an afterbay for
the Castaic powerplant while in generating mode and as a forebay while
in pumping mode. Pyramid Lake serves as the upper reservoir for the
powerplant.
The powerplant has six Francis-type pump-turbine units each with a
rated head of 1,048 feet, a runner speed of 257 rpm, a rated output of
355,000 hp, and an estimated rated discharge of 3,500 cfs. It also has
one Pelton-type pump starting turbine unit with a rated head of 950
feet, a runner speed of 225 rpm, rated output of 69,000 hp, and an
approximate rated discharge of 752 cfs. These seven units have a
combined generating capacity of 1,275 MW with a plant hydraulic
capacity of 17,840 cfs.
Elderberry forebay dam is a 1,990-foot-long, 200-foot-high zoned
earthfill dam. The crest of the dam is 25 feet wide with an elevation
of 1,550 feet. The outlet tower, located approximately 400 feet
upstream of Elderberry forebay dam, includes: One 5-foot-wide by 6-
foot-high main gate, six 8-foot-wide by 12-foot-high lower gates, two
8-foot-wide by 9-foot-high upper gates, twelve 13-foot-wide by 12-foot-
high storm gates, and one 5-foot-wide by 6-foot-high guard gate. The
outlet tower connects to a 21-foot-diameter conduit that runs under
Elderberry forebay dam and releases water into Castaic Lake (a non-
project facility).
An overflow weir built into a natural topographic saddle located
approximately 300 feet east of the left abutment of the dam serves as
an uncontrolled emergency spillway. The crest elevation of the overflow
weir is 1,540 feet, with a capacity of at least 12,000 cfs. Elderberry
forebay dam, including this emergency spillway, is the most downstream
project facility.
Elderberry forebay serves as an afterbay for the Castaic powerplant
when the plant is generating power, and as a forebay when the plant is
pumping water back to Pyramid Lake. The forebay also receives a small
amount of local inflow from Castaic Creek, which enters at the northern
end of the reservoir. The remaining inflow to Elderberry forebay is SWP
water from Pyramid Lake conveyed via the Angeles tunnel. At a NMWSE of
1,530 feet, Elderberry forebay has a storage capacity of 28,231 acre-
feet, a surface area of 500 acres, and a shoreline length of 7 miles.
The Storm bypass channel is on Castaic Creek above Elderberry
forebay and includes a series of three check-dam basins with a total
area of approximately 21 acres, designed to capture sediment runoff
during high flow events to reduce the accumulation of sediment near the
powerplant and ensure the sustained efficiency of the Castaic
powerplant operation.
The Castaic switchyard is a fenced switchyard located adjacent to
the powerhouse. An 11.4-mile-long, 230-kV transmission line delivers
energy from the Castaic switchyard to the Haskell Junction substation
and transmits energy to the Castaic powerplant when in the pump-back
operating mode.
Co-Licensees' Proposed Modifications
In their Final License Application, the co-licensees propose to add
the following facilities to the project license: The existing Quail
Detention Embankment, segments of some existing roads necessary for
project operation and maintenance, and an existing streamflow gage
located on Piru Creek downstream of Pyramid Dam. Additionally, the co-
licensees propose to remove the Warne Transmission Line from the
project license.
The co-licensees also propose to modify the project boundary to
reduce the amount of land from 6,928 acres to 4,563.8 acres. The
project, as proposed by the licensee, would reduce the amount of
federal land from 2,790 acres to 2,007 acres of federal lands: 1,336
acres administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest
Service, as part of the Angeles National Forest; 665 acres administered
by the
[[Page 7985]]
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as part of the Los
Padres National Forest; and 6.5 acres administered by the U.S.
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
l. 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 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. For assistance, contact
FERC Online Support. A copy is also available for inspection and
reproduction at the address in item h above.
m. You may also register online at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/esubscription.asp to be notified via email of new filings and issuances
related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC
Online Support.
n. 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.
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Milestone Target date
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Notice of Acceptance/Notice of Ready for April 2020.
Environmental Analysis.
Filing of recommendations, preliminary June 2020.
terms and conditions, and fishway
prescriptions.
Commission issues Draft EIS................ December 2020.
Comments on Draft Environmental Impact February 2021.
Statement (EIS).
Modified terms and conditions.............. April 2021.
Commission issues Final EIS................ July 2021.
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o. 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: February 6, 2020.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-02809 Filed 2-11-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P