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6-21 -1 9x99 7 ~ 00Pt-0 <br />1EFFERT <br />RNEYS AT LAW <br />n <br />HON ASSOCIATES 303 a36 <br />lrJ L5~ <br />JU"•! 2 2 1999 <br />June 21, 1999 <br />Mr. Chuck Williams (BP-W-GW) <br />U.S. Em•ironmental Protection Agency <br />999 18* Street, Suite 500 <br />Denver, CO 80202-2466 <br />9396 p. 2 <br />1670 R~noa~sr, SurrE 1100 <br />Dt.AYEN. COtOR1W E0202 _` <br />(303) 436.1660 <br />Fnt:1303) 436-9396 <br />Re: American Soda. LLP ("American Soda") Yankee Gttlch Proiect EPA Draft Area Permit <br />No. 003858.0000 <br />Dear Mr. Williams: <br />On behalf of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Sierra Club; the following <br />comrrtents are submitted on the Environmental Protection Agency's ("EPA") Draft Area Permit <br />and Draft Statement of Basis (or the above-referenced area underground injection control <br />("UIC") permit for American Soda's Yankee Gulch nahcolite mining project. Pis our comments <br />demonstrate, issuance of this permit would violate the National Environmental Policy Act, <br />42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq. ("NEPA"),because EPA has not assessed the environmental impacts of <br />the Yankee Gulch project and would violate the Safe Drinking Water Act ("SCHWA") because <br />the permit does nothing to ensure that underground sources of drinking water ate protected from <br />contamination. <br />In issuing the Dtaft Area Permit, EPA has done nothing to comply with the legal <br />requirements of NEPA. Erroneously relying nn a draft environmental impact statement ("DEIS") <br />prepared by the Bureau of Land A4anagement ("BLM"), EPA has done no work of its own to <br />assess the environmental impacts of granting the area permit.' Reliance on the BLM's work <br />product is insufficient because the BLM's DEIS falls short of meeting NEPA's minimum <br />requirements. In that regard, 1 attach and incorporate the comments of the Sierra Club to the <br />BLM regarding the inadequacy of its DEiS. I also attach and incorporate the comment letters <br />subntirted to the BI.M by David Cunningham, John Lafabregue, Glen A. Miller, and Michael C. <br />Ireland. <br />~ It is »ot clear whether EPA intends to rely upon the BLM's DEIS or believes that NEPA is <br />inapplicable to the UIC permitting process. Nowhere in the Draft U1C permit does EPA <br />mention that it is adopting the BLM's DEIS, as it is required to do by 40 C.F.R. § 1506.3 (1998). <br />Furthermore, as discussed below, EPA's UIC permitting process is clearly a trtaj~~r federal action <br />to which the NEPA requirements apply. <br />