PERMFILE72798

• Permit No: C1981038
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 12/11/2001
• Section_Exhibit Name: VOLUME 9A- Environmental Assessment Appendix Part 2 OF 3
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

retreat mining alone the eastern boundary of its existir,e federal
leases will isolate a 300-acre tract of federal coal reserves unless
those reserves are mined as a part of the ongoing operation.
• Surface Flinina Control and Reclamation Act of 1977
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (S'•1CRA) of 1977
established minimum standards for regulating surface mining and reclamaticr,
activities throughout the country on public and private lands, and for
assuring adequate protection from the environmental impact of surface
mining. In this TE/EA the impact analysis of the proposed action and
the alternatives assumes that the requirements of both the interim ar.d
permanent programs ~,~ill be enforced in a timely manner.
If a decision is made to lease in response to either or both I
short-term lease applications, any company acouiring a co^petitive coal
lease has a period of up to three years in vrhich to submit a mining
permit application to the Office of Surface i•lining (OS.'.). 2efore aperova~,_
that application must comply with the reeuiremen*_s of 5~1CRA. As a part
of the process of reviewing that application, a public notice must be
published and the public oiven an opportunity to review and co^ment on
the application. Information on mining methods, etc., submitted with a
short-term coal lease application is not repaired to be as detailed as
information submitted with a mining permit application.
IJRDC vs. Hughes
;~ On September 27, 1977, the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia ruled in NRDC vs. Hushes that the 1975 final coal leasing
programmatic environmental impact statement was inadeouate and enioined
the Department from, "taking any steps v+hatsoever directly er indirectly
to implement the new coal leasing progra~~~ includine calling for the
nominations of tracts for Federal coal leasing and issuing any leases,
except vrhen the proposed lease is required to maintain an existing
mining operation at the present levels of production.or is necessary to
provide reserves needed to meet existing contracts ar,d the extent or the
proposed iease is not greater than is required to meet these two criteria
for more than three years in the future." The court stated that the
' standard should be applied to both noncompetitive prer'erence right lease
applications (RP.LAs) and competitive leases.
In addition, the court ordered the Department to issue an official
press release, publish a notice in the Federal Register and take other
steps app repriate to receive additional comments on the 1975 statement.
The Department was further ordered to prepare a draft supplement to the
1975 statement, receive comments on the supplement, and prepare a new
final statement, These documents were to discuss the issues which the
court identified as being deficient.
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