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Although the State of Colorado lease is 640 acres, only a very small fraction of this lease will <br />actually be part of the project. Much of this lease covers an area consisting of hay fields <br />which are below the coal seam outcrop, an area of very thin coal on the south side of Hay <br />Gulch, and an area east of the surface facilities site with little or no practical access to the <br />federal coal reserves. <br />The applicant proposes to enter the proposed lease area using the room -and -pillar method of <br />mining. The mining plan consists of development of main and submain entries off of which <br />panels are driven for pillar extraction. The pillars in panels will be square or rectangular in <br />shape and developed on 60- or 75 -foot centers with the entries 16 - 18 feet wide. <br />Compliance With the Land Use Plan <br />This application is considered to be in compliance with the existing BLM land use plan. That <br />plan, the San Juan/San Miguel Resource Management Plan (RMP), was completed and <br />approved in September, 1985. The information in the approved land use plan determined that <br />the area was suitable for coal development and coal production could occur without conflicting <br />with other land uses. <br />Alternative 2 -No Action <br />If the proposed lease was not issued, National King Coal would be precluded from mining the <br />coal in the proposed lease area. National King Coal would not have access to the additional <br />coal reserves. It is anticipated that coal production, employment and truck traffic would remain <br />the same as the proposed action throughout the remaining life of the King Coal mine. If the <br />proposed lease is not issued, and the production rate is increased to 300,000 tons per year, <br />the King Coal mine would probably close in approximately 6.3 years. <br />AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT <br />0 <br />