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2 <br /> managed in a manner that recognizes the nation's need for domestic sources of minerals (43 U.S.C. <br /> §1701(a)(12)). Furthermore, FLPMA authorizes BLM to manage the use, occupancy, and development of <br /> public lands through leases and permits (43 U.S.C. § 1732). OSMRE's action would be to recommend <br /> modifying the existing mine plan for the King lI mine to cover the area of the LBA, after a lease has been <br /> issued, and to allow additional new activity within the existing permit boundary, and if approved, what <br /> conditions may be needed. <br /> The Dunn Ranch LBA project area consists of federal coal beneath fee surface estate predominantly owned <br /> by the Ute Mountain Ute(UMU)Tribe, along with a smaller amount of other private surface owners and <br /> BLM-administered surface estate. OCCE proposes to access the federal coal reserve within the proposed <br /> LBA area from the King II Mine using underground mining methods from the King 11 Mine. About 204 <br /> acres of non-federal coal would be mined beneath about 479 acres of UMU Tribe owned surface during <br /> development of access into the new federal coal reserve. <br /> The Dunn Ranch Area LBA and Mine Plan Modification EA(DOI-BLM-CO-SO10-2019-0003-EA),which <br /> is available at the Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores, CO, is incorporated by reference for this Finding of <br /> No Significant Impact(FONSI). The proposed action-Alternative A and no action alternative--Alternative <br /> B were analyzed in the EA. <br /> The proposed action would result in approximately 20 acres of new surface disturbance over the life of the <br /> mine,ten of these acres would be considered temporary disturbance associated with construction of a"low <br /> cover crossing"to access the new lease from the existing lease without surfacing. This crossing would be <br /> located on lease COC-62920, on Federal Mine Permit CO-0106C, not on COC-78825. Another ten acres <br /> could be expected for future miscellaneous activities in locations yet to be identified and would only occur <br /> after additional analysis. If the winning bidder intends to mine the property in a manner substantially <br /> different than the selected alternative, additional analysis would be required. <br /> FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT: <br /> Based upon a review of the EA and the supporting documents,I have determined that the Proposed Action <br /> - Alternative A, with design features, (Selected Alternative) is not a major federal action that would <br /> significantly affect the quality of the human environment, individually or cumulatively with other actions <br /> in the general area. The action is consistent with current land management direction for the Project area set <br /> forth in the Tres Rios Field Office Approved Resource Management Plan (RMP) (BLM 2015). No <br /> environmental effects meet the definition of significance in context or intensity as defined in 40 G.F.R. § <br /> 1508.27 and do not exceed those effects described in the San Juan National Forest and BLM Tres Rios <br /> Field Office Lands and Resource Management Plan/Final Environmental Impact Statement (TRFO <br /> RMP/FEIS, September 2013).Therefore, an environmental impact statement is not needed. <br /> This finding is based on the context and intensity of the project as described: <br /> Context: The context of the environmental effects is based on the environmental analysis in the EA. The <br /> Selected Alternative would extend mine life at the King II mine at presently approved rates for an additional <br /> 22 years by opening up new private and federal coal in and adjacent to the LBA area, and by allowing <br /> presently uneconomic reserves at the existing mine to be blended with high grade coal from the LBA <br /> Mining would be by underground methods, and there would only be 20 acres of surface disturbance. The <br /> road use agreement with La Plata County authorizes up to 1.1 million tons of haulage per year, however <br /> the annual production is only projected to be up to 800,000 tons per year. The project is a site-specific <br /> action directly involving approximately 2,462 acres of Federal coal mineral estate.Most of the lease is split <br /> estate land,owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe.The lease includes 47 acres of BLM administered <br /> surface land that by itself does not have international,national,regional,or state-wide importance. <br /> DOI-BLM-CO-SOIO-2019-0003-EA FONSI <br />