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IBLA 94-366 • Act of 1977 (SMCRA), as amended, 30 U.S.C. ~~ 1201-1328 (1994), and are therefore not subject to the permitting and other requirements of SMCRA. • The two mines are owned and operated by the Peabody Western Coal Conq~any (PvJCC), and are located in northeastern Arizona within the Navajo/Hopi Indian Reservations. The transportation facilities are a railroad, known as the Black Mesa and Lake Powell (BM&LP) Railroad, which is owned (along with others) and operated by the Salt River Project Agricultural Ittg~rovement and Power District (SRP), and a coal slurry pipeline, which is owned and operated by Black Mesa Pipeline, Inc. (BMP). The PWCC, BMP, and SRP have all filed answers to Appellants' Statement of Reasons for Appeal (SOR) and all are joined as proper parties to this appeal. The pipeline at issue is 273 miles long and is buried for most of its length. It carries coal from the Black Mesa Mine to the Mohave Generating Station, in Laughlin, Nevada. Coal extracted at the mine is crushed by PWCC and placed on a conveyor system, which is owned by FWCC, BMP, and the Mohave Generating Station, and operated by PWCC. That system carries the coal to a preparation plant, which is owned and operated by BMP, where it is further crushed and water is added to create a coal slurry. The conveyor system and preparation plant are all within the area proposed by PWCC for permitting under SMCRA as part of the Black Mesa Mine. The proposed mine permit would cover the conveyor system. The BMP has applied for a separate permit for the plant. Following preparation, the coal slurry leaves the plant by way of BMP's pipeline, traversing a portion of the proposed mine permit area and continuing on to the electrical generating station in Laughlin, Nevada, where it is used for fuel. The railroad at issue is 83 miles long, and carries coal from the Kayenta Mine to the Navajo Generating Station, in Page, Arizona. Coal extracted at the mine is crushed by PL+1CC and placed on a conveyor system, which is owned and operated by PWCC. That system carries the coal to silos and a loadout facility, which are also owned by ~ICC. The conveyor system, silos, and loadout facility are all within the permit area for the Kayenta Mine and covered by the mine permit. At the loadout facility, the coal is loaded into cars and transported by SRP's railroad to the electrical generating station in Page, Arizona, where it is used for fuel. Title to the coal passes from PWCC to the electrical generating station either at the station (Black Mesa Mine) or at the loadout facility (Kayenta Mine). Further, the railroad and the pipeline are operated for the sole purpose of transporting all of the coal produced by PWCC at each mine to the respective electrical generating station. Throughout the 17- year operation of the mines from the enactment of SMCRA in 1977 to the 1994 Decisions at issue here, neither transportation facility has ever been permitted or otherwise authorized to operate under that Act. In her Decisions, the Acting Director concluded that the railroad and pipeline are not "surface coal mining operations" regulated by SMCRA. She 142 IBLA 39 I • WWW Version