2020-06-25_REVISION - C1981035 (35)

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Environmental Assessment 1.4 Purpose of the Proposed Action In their respective agency roles in providing for the recovery of federal coal reserves in an efficient and environmentally sound manner,the BLM must respond to an application submitted by GCC for the modification of Federal Coal Lease COC-62920, and OSMRE must respond to related applications submitted by GCC for the continuation of mining operations at the King II Mine. BLM's responsibility to consider and analyze potential significant impacts resulting from, and identify alternatives to,the proposed action is established under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 as amended (MLA),the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 as amended(NEPA). OSMRE's responsibility to analyze potential significant impacts resulting from, and make a recommendation to the ASLM regarding,modification of the mining plan and to administer Federal Mine Permit CO-0106A for permitted lands owned by the UMU Tribe is established under the MLA, SMCRA, and NEPA. As established by the MLA of 1920 and the SMCRA,the OSMRE—a co-lead in the preparation of this EA—is the agency responsible for evaluating the environmental effects resulting from the mining and surface disturbance associated with the proposed lease modification to COC-62920,pursuant to the requirements of the NEPA, in order to make a recommendation to the ASLM on a decision to approve, disapprove, or approve with conditions the mining plan for the lease modification area. The ASLM will decide whether the mining plan modification is approved, disapproved, or approved with conditions. Additionally, OSMRE is the regulatory authority that administers Federal Mine Permit CO-0106A,which covers the permitted land owned by the UMU Tribe. As the regulatory authority, OSMRE must evaluate the environmental effects resulting from two Proposed Actions for the King II Federal Permit CO-106A. ■ The OSMRE must decide whether or not to approve a Permit Revision Application Package consisting of a water monitoring program, Probable Hydrologic Consequences analysis, Right of Entry information, Subsidence Control Plan, and a Reclamation Plan. ■ The OSMRE must decide whether or not to approve an application to renew Federal Mine Permit CO-106A. The permit would reauthorize operations associated with the mining of federal coal from the areas within Federal Coal Lease COC-62920 where the surface of the land is under the ownership of the UMU Tribe,but outside of the UMU Indian Reservation. The OSMRE has administratively delayed its decision on the permit renewal application. 1.5 Need for the Proposed Action The need for the action is to respond to the request from GCC to modify the King II Federal Coal Lease Tract COC-62920 to extract coal under the MLA of 1920, as amended. The BLM is the agency responsible for fulfilling requirements,under the MLA, as amended by the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1976 and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA)to respond to a request to modify Federal Coal Lease COC-62920. Part of the outlined responsibility of the BLM includes encouraging development of domestic coal reserves to meet future energy needs, reducing dependence on foreign sources of energy and providing for dependable and affordable domestic energy while giving due consideration to the protection of other resource values. For DOI-BLM-CO-S010-2011-0074-EA September 2017 -19-