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II. DESCRIPTION OF THE ALTERNATIVES • Two alternatives have been considered for analysis in the Environmental Assessment: Proposed Action and No Action. A detailed discussion of the alternatives follows. The proposed action has been selected as the preferred alternative for this action. A. Pcooosed Action Western Fuels-Utah (WF-U) has applied for an emergency bypass lease adjac- ent and contiguous to its Logical Hining Unit (LMU) at the Deserado Mine, Rio Blanco County, Colorado, in accordance with Title 43 CFR 4325-Leasing on Application. The lands applied for are described as follows: T.2N., R.lO1W. Section 1: Lots 1, 2, 5, and 6, SW1/4NE1/4, W1/2SE1/4NE1/4, N1/2SE1/4. T.3N., R.lO1W., Section 36: SW1/4SE1/4, W1/2SE1/4S E1/4 The above described Lands contain approximately 344 acres (Figure 2). The Deserado Hine is an underground mine using Longwell and continuous miner methods for coal extraction. This mine operates within the Deserado Hine LHU which is contiguous to the lease application area. The mine is the fuel supply portion of the Bonanza Power Plant project. Other parts of the Bonanza Power Plant project are the Bonanza Station, a 400 megawatt coal fired power plant; the Deseret-Western Railway, a captive railway which moves coal from the mine to the power plant; and high voltage trans- mission system. The Deserado Mine is the only Euel supplier to the Bonanza Station and its rate of coal production is dictated by the fuel requirements of the station. During the next 5 years the mine is scheduled to produce approximately 1.2 million clean tons annually. The lease application area will allow the extension of currently planned longwall panels into federally owned coal which will be rendered unrecov- erable (bypassed) if not mined in conjunction with the Deserado Hine plan. WF-U has estimated the recoverable coal reserves for the lease application area based on site specific resource data and WF-U's proposed mining plan. WF-U has identified eight (8) coal seams which are correlatable over at least s portion of the Deserado Hine LHU area. Of the eight seams, only coal contained in the B and D seams is of adequate thickness to be consid- ered minable. The D seam has a higher clean coal reserve potential than does the B seam. Therefore, mining in the D seam is a priority and B seam coal is considered nonrecoverable. Exploration conducted during 1985 and 1986, revealed the presence of a substantial parting in the "D" seam which renders the area east of the 6