California Department of Water Resources; 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 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.: 14797-001.

c. Date filed: November 20, 2019.

d. Applicant: California Department of Water Resources.

e. Name of Project: Devil Canyon Project (currently licensed as part of the South SWP Project No. 2426; proposed to be relicensed as a separate project).

f. Location: Along the East Branch of the California Aqueduct, in San Bernardino County, California. The project occupies 220.98 acres of United States lands administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, as part of the San Bernardino National Forest.

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

h. Applicant Contact: 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; email—Gwen.Knittweis@water.ca.gov.

i. FERC Contact: Kyle Olcott at (202) 502-8963; or email at kyle.olcott@ferc.gov.

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: January 20, 2019.

The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status using the Commission's eFiling system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp . 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, please send a paper copy to: Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426. The first page of any filing should include docket number P-14797-001.

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

n. The project consists of: (1) A 249-foot-tall, 2,230-foot-long zoned earth and rockfill dam impounding a 995-acre reservoir; (2) intake structures and two 1.3-mile-long steel penstocks; (3) a powerhouse with four turbine-generating units; (4) a switchyard with four step-up transformers; and (5) appurtenant facilities. The project's estimated annual generation is 836 gigawatt-hours.

o. 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.

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.

p. 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.

Issue Deficiency Letter (if necessary)—January 2020

Request Additional Information—January 2020

Issue Acceptance Letter—April 2020

Issue Scoping Document 1 for comments—May 2020

Request Additional Information (if necessary)—July 2020

Issue Scoping Document 2—August 2020

Issue notice of ready for environmental analysis—August 2020

Commission issues EA—February 2021

Comments on EA—March 2021

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.