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The Yampa River flows generally east to west approximately 6 miles north of the Project Area, <br /> and the Williams Fork River skirts the south side of the permit area and flows into the Yampa <br /> River approximately one mile west of the permit area. Within the permit area, on north facing <br /> slopes, portions of the Buzzard, Coyote,No Name, Johnson, Pyeatt and Flume gulches flow <br /> generally south to north primarily in response to snowmelt or heavy rains. These gulches <br /> eventually discharge flows into the Yampa River. Drainages within the southern portion of the <br /> permit area include portions of Ute, Castor, Deer, Elk, and Horse gulches that flow generally <br /> southward into the Williams Fork River. <br /> 1.1 Action Area <br /> The description of action area is informed by the following definitions. <br /> Action—"all activities or programs of any kind authorized, funded, or carried out, in whole or in <br /> part, by Federal agencies..... or(d) actions directly or indirectly causing modifications to the <br /> land,water, or air." (50 C.F.R. § 402.02) <br /> Action Area—"all areas to be affected directly or indirectly by the Federal action and not <br /> merely the immediate area involved in the action." (50 C.F.R. § 402.02) <br /> Effects of the action— "refers to the direct and indirect effects of an action on the species or <br /> critical habitat, together with the effects of other activities that are interrelated or <br /> interdependent with that action that will be added to the environmental baseline.... Indirect <br /> effects are those that are caused by the proposed action and are later in time, but still are <br /> reasonably certain to occur. Interrelated actions are those that are part of a larger action and <br /> depend on the larger action for their justification. Interdependent actions are those that have <br /> no independent utility apart from the action under consideration." (50 C.F.R. § 401.02) <br /> [Emphasis added] <br /> Based on the area where "modifications to the land, water, or air" (directly or indirectly) from <br /> this proposed action occur and can be perceived, the action area for this BO covers: 1)the <br /> Trapper Mine, 2)the topographic airshed(airshed) (BA Fig. 6), and 3) critical habitats <br /> designated for all four endangered fish species found along the Yampa and White Rivers down <br /> to where each meets the Green River, which are within, adjacent to, and downriver from the <br /> airshed. The airshed encompasses the Trapper Mine and Craig Generating Station; it generally <br /> covers the area from Steamboat Springs west nearly to Dinosaur National Monument, and from <br /> the Flat Top Mountains north to the Elkhead Mountains (BA Fig. 6). The airshed includes <br /> portions of Moffat, Rio Blanco, Garfield, and Routt Counties. Examining air quality through a <br /> topographic airshed methodology allows for an assessment that utilizes the theoretical motion of <br /> the atmosphere, the blocking features of local topography, and the location of emissions sources. <br /> 1.2 Mining <br /> Trapper production from the two lease areas is expected to be approximately 19.1 million tons <br /> from July 1, 2015, through the life of mine, currently anticipated to extend to 2024. The average <br /> production rate is approximately 2.3 million tons per year from eight coal seams of the Williams <br /> 3 <br />