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E. <br />• Under the proposed action, short-term use of mining coal would <br />result in the extraction of approximately 1,008,000 tons (55$) <br />and would render the remaining 825,000 tons (45$) of coal <br />unrecoverable over the long-term, given current technology. <br />Maximum economic recovery of the coal reserves using current <br />technology is considered to be fifty-five percent. This amount <br />includes pillar recovery on retreat. Therefore, forty-five <br />percent of the total in-place reserves is determined to be <br />unrecoverable. The long-term productivity of surface resources <br />would not be affected under any of the alternatives. <br />F. Irretrievable or Irreversible Commitment of Resources <br />Under the proposed action, the 1,008,000 tons of coal mined <br />would be irreversibly lost as a resource and the 825,000 tons <br />of coal left in the ground would be unrecoverable given present <br />technology. There would be no irreversible or irretrievable <br />commitments under the No Action alternative: <br />G. Cumulative Impacts <br />National King Coal is the only coal mining operation currently <br />in the area and due to present and probable future market <br />conditions additional coal mining operations are not expected <br />to come on Iine. The additional impacts of someone other than <br />National King Coal acquiring the lease would be negligible <br />since the new operation would come on line at about the same <br />• time that National King Coal would close the King Mine. At the <br />present time there are no known prospective activities that <br />would have an impact in the area being planned. <br />It is possible that additional modifications and/or competitive <br />lease applications will be made in the future. When these <br />applications would be submitted or the acreage that may be <br />applied for is not known. Additional leased acreage will not <br />result in substantial additional surface disturbance as any <br />additional coal that is leased will be mined by underground <br />methods. As noted previously, Blue Flame would have some <br />surface disturbance associated with the reopening of its <br />surface facilities. This 3isturbance though would be confined <br />to previously disturbed private land. <br />H. Critical Elements <br />The following critical elements were addressed in this EA and <br />would not be significantly affected by any of the <br />alternatives: air quality, cultural or historical resource <br />values, social and economic values, water resources, wilderness <br />values, and threatened or endangered species. Though elements <br />such as social and economic value and threatened and endangered <br />species were addressed in depth, the analysis is that none of <br />the critical elements will be significantly affected by any of <br />• the alternatives. <br />18 <br />