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Bureau of Land Management Environmental Assessment <br /> Royal Gorge Field Office DOI-BLM-CO-F020-2019-0056 EA <br /> 1. INTRODUCTION <br /> 1.1. IDENTIFYING INFORMATION <br /> PROJECT TITLE: Mountain Valley Excavating—Mineral Materials Contract <br /> NEPA DOCUMENT NUMBER: DOI-BLM-CO-F020-2019-0056 EA <br /> CASEFILE(OPTIONAL: COC 079188 <br /> PLANNING UNIT: Collegiate/Sangre Subregion#2 <br /> LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Oh PM, T. 19 S., R. 73 W., Section 19 <br /> APPLICANT: Mountain Valley Excavating <br /> 1.2. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND <br /> This action is subject to 43 CFR 3600, Mineral Materials Disposal regulations. <br /> BACKGROUND: <br /> This EA has been prepared by BLM to analyze the applicants request for a mineral material <br /> contract,which would authorize the production of federal mineral materials along Hwy 69 <br /> adjacent to Texas Creek in Fremont County, Colorado (Figure 1). Per 43 CFR 3600 regulations, <br /> this proposed disposal would be administered under a mineral materials' competitive sale <br /> contract,with option of renewal. Although Mountain Valley Excavating may not be the <br /> successful bidder in this mineral materials sale,their proposed mining and reclamation plan, <br /> access and other permits and easements obtained would be taken into consideration, as they <br /> provide a reasonable industry standard approach to mining the proposed BLM parcel. <br /> Mountain Valley Excavating initially proposed conducting exploration; however, due to <br /> conflicting issues with approximately 11 other proposal sites (Alternatives 1-6A, 6B-10) and an <br /> omitted NEPA Categorical Exclusion(DOI-BLM-CO-F020-2018-0070 CX)that was analyzed <br /> and signed; the operator changed their intent from a test pit to a quarry. A standalone EA is <br /> therefore needed for this mineral material application. All 12 alternatives considered,but not <br /> analyzed further are outlined in section 2.4. <br /> On July 10, 2020,BLM received a complete mineral materials application from Mountain Valley <br /> Excavating(Appendix A). The site lies approximately 27 miles west of Canon City, Colorado <br /> and about 1 mile north of an existing Fremont County borrow pit. The proposed quarry would <br /> occupy approximately 10 acres of BLM managed lands, including any access road construction <br /> 3 <br />