PERMFILE56499

• Permit No: C1980007
• IBM Index Class Name: Revision
• Doc Date: 6/13/2005
• Doc Name: 2.04 Application for Permit For Surface or Underground
• Type & Sequence: PR10
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

West Elk Mine
• approximately 8,200 feet). The West Flatiron (approximately 8,500 feet) is the major topographic
expression in the center of the Box Canyon lease tract.
Pre-Mining Environmental Resources/Condition, Capability and Productivity
Lands within the West Elk Mine pemut area are managed by the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) - U.S. Department of Interior; the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) - U.S. Department of
Agriculture; MCC; and the private landowners identified in Exhibit 3. Public lands managed by the
BLM fall within the Uncompahgre Basin Resource Area. USFS managed public lands are located
within the Gunnison National Forest. Use of private lands in unincorporated Gunnison County is
regulated by Gunnison County. Each of these federal agencies manages their lands according to
Resource Management Plans (RMP) prepazed under the Federal Land Policy and Management
Act (FLPMA). Information regarding the existing pre-mining environmental and land uses on these
public lands is derived from the RMPs prepazed for the Uncompahgre Basin Resource Area and the
Gunnison National Forest. Information on the pre-mining land uses on private lands is derived from
information provided by landowners or long-time residents of the azea. Map 67 depicts the pre-
mining surface land uses of the permit and adjacent azeas.
Uncompahgre Basin Resource Area
Within the West Elk Mine pemut area, the BLM manages approximately 182 acres of public land
located in Secfion 11 and 12, T13S, R90W. These lands fall within Management Unit 7, which
accounts for four (4) percent of the total land azea of the Uncompahgre Basin Planning Area. The
existing pre-mining environmental resources identified as important by the BLM in this azea are
coal and wildlife habitat (BLM, 1989). The relatively small size of the azea within this tract and its
proximity to existing transportafion facilities (Colorado Highway 133, and the Union Pack
Railroad), the North Fork of the Gunnison River, and existing mines, limit the number and variety
of land uses for the tract. The BLM has not developed or provided a discussion of the capability of
the land to support a variety of uses, recognizing that livestock grazing and mining have been the
dominant historical uses of the azea since European settlement of the North Fork Valley.
Productivity of the land has not been quantified by BLM since the primary use is mining. Wildlife
habitat is minimal in this area of the management unit, and there is no crucial deer and elk winter
range in this area.
The BLM has specified the management of this area in the RMP (BLM, 1989):
"The management unit will be managed for both existing and potential coal development.
Development of existing coal leases will continue, and unleased federal coal will be
identified as acceptable for further coal leasing consideration with a minimum of
multiple-use restrictions. Activities and land uses that aze consistent with maintaining
existing coal operations and the potential for coal development will be pemutted."
Other acceptable land uses in this management unit aze oil and gas leasing and development,
forestry, utility corridors, and off-road vehicle use.
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2.04-2 Revised June 2005 PRI G