GENERAL41227 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Bear Coal Company has applied to the Bureau of Land Management, Branch of • Solid Minerals office is Grand Junction, Colorado, for a partial lease assignment from West Elk Coal Company for portions of Federal coal lease C-0017192 encompassing approximately 320 acres in Sections 17 and 18 of T 13 S, R 90 W. My recommendation does not include mining of this area. I have determined that this action will not have a significant impact on the human environment. II. Background The Mt. Gunnison No. 1 Mine is located in Gunnison County, Colorado, 1 mile east of Somerset. The Mt. Gunnison No. 1 Mine has been operating since 1981 sad was permitted under the approved Colorado Permanent Regulatory Program in July, 1981. The previously approved permit area contains approximately 2,475 acres, of which 2,375 acres are leased Federal coal. The mining plan for the Mt. Gunnison No. 1 Mine was originally approved is July, 1981. Since the original approval of the mining plan, there has been one mining plan modification which was approved in August, 1985. The permit revision area contains approximately 1,765 acres, of which approximately 1,450 acres are leased Federal coal. The estimated 40 year • life of the operation will affect approximately 11,325 acres, of which 7,460 acres are leased Federal coal lands. I am recommending approval for a portion of the area to be mined over the life of the operation based on the environmental assessment and the adequacy of the data and information provided by West Elk Coal Company in the permit application package. The underground mining operation will principally utilize room and pillar mining methods. The F coal seam will be mined at a production rate of approximately 2.8 million tons per year. All mining and reclamation operations are scheduled to cease around the year 2020. This mining operation will not affect any environmentally sensitive areas. During the review of the permit application package no new major issues were identified. The July 15, 1981 mining plan approval area was restricted in extent to correspond to the State's 5 year permit area. The restricted area of approval was necessary to allow for subsidence in the Mt. Gunnison area to be studied before mining would be allowed in the controversial Minnesota Creek drainage basin. Analysis of that data would determine if mining would adversely affect agriculture dependent on uninterrupted surface water flows in the Minnesota Creek drainage. This application for mining plan approval would increase the approved area by 1,450 acres to a total of 3,825 acres (see map in this document). None of the 3,825 acres are in the Minnesota Creek drainage. Approval of the mining plan for the entire life-of-mine area cannot be considered until the subsidence data has been collected and analyzed. This revision is necessary so that mining can begin in lease C-1362 in order to show • compliance with the diligence requirements of 43 CFR Part 3480.