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Case 3.:13-cv-01723-RBJ Document 91 Filed 06127114 USDC Colorado Page 24 of 36 <br />modeling the effect of the Lease Modifications. FSLeasing-0046873, -0047305-07 (VOC <br />concentrations too variable and too low for accurate modeling). The agencies also note that <br />nearby air monitoring stations have not revealed any local exceedances of VOC limits. <br />FSLeasing-0046857-58. Given that the rate of mining is expected to remain the same, the <br />agencies concluded that VOC emissions were unlikely to change. Id Moreover, the <br />disagreement between the agencies and plaintiffs about the accuracy of plaintiffs' mathematical <br />forecasting based on the old data from West Elk Mine strikes this Court as precisely the type of <br />technical disagreement where deference to the agency is most important. Cf. Wyoming, 661 F.3d <br />at 1246. <br />After deferring to the agencies' conclusions that current data do not support the modeling <br />that plaintiffs request, the only remaining issue is whether the agencies were under an obligation <br />to obtain additional information on VOC emissions. See 40 C.F.R. § 1502.22(a) (stating that an <br />agency "shall" obtain additional information if it "is essential to a reasoned choice among <br />alternatives and the overall costs of obtaining it are not exorbitant"). The agencies explain that <br />obtaining more data on VOC emissions would not be essential to a choice among alternatives <br />given that there is no evidence (with the exception of plaintiffs' disputed extrapolations) that <br />emissions could be significant if the Lease Modifications were approved. Plaintiffs suggest that <br />if the data were not essential, the agency would nonetheless be required to make a set of explicit <br />findings to that effect. But strict, technical compliance with Section 1502.22 has never been <br />required as long as other information in the agency documents reveals that the missing <br />information is not essential. See Colo. Envtl. Coal., 185 F.3d at 1172-73 (courts are "unwilling <br />to give a hyper -technical reading of [40 C.F.R. §1502.22] to require the [agency] to include a <br />separate, formal disclosure statement in the environmental impact statement to the effect that ... <br />24 <br />