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~®, United States Forest Grand Mesa, 2250 Highway 50 I a g ~ F Department of Service Uncompahgre and Delta, CO 81416 Agriculture Gunnison Voice: 970-874-6600 National Forests TDD: 970-874-6660 File Code: 2$20-4 Date: December 1, 2003 Dear Interested Party, The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest (GMUG) and the BLM-Colorado State Office (BLM) have prepared an environmental assessment (EA) that considers the effects of leasing a 688-acre parcel of federal and private lands for underground coal mining. The West Flatiron Federal Coal Lease by Application EA considers the effects of coal leasing on about 568 acres of National Forest System lands, 40 acres of BLM public lands, and the federal minerals underlying 80 acres of private land. The EA was prepared in response to a federal coal lease application submitted by Mountain Coal Company to ]ease lands adjacent to the existing West Elk mine near Somerset in Gunnison County. The lease would provide about 2.3 million tons of coal, and was submitted to prevent bypassing mineable federal coal reserves. The EA is enclosed for your review. Please read the following cazefully for instructions on how to comment on the respective Forest Service and BLM portions of the EA. Forest Service: This EA is being released for the 30-day public comment period according to 36 CFR 215.5. The opportunity to comment on the EA ends 30 days following the date of publication of a legal notice in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Only those who submit timely and substantive comments will be accepted as appellants of the final decision. Substantive comments are defined in 36 CFR 215. Substantive comments must be within the scope of the proposed action, have a direct relationship to the proposed action, and include supporting reasons for the Responsible Official to consider. Also, for appeal eligibility, each individual or representative from each organization submitting comments must either sign the comments or verify their identity upon request. The Forest Service Responsible Official is Robert L. Storch, Forest Supervisor for the GMUG. Comments may be submitted in hard copy through the mail, email, fax or delivered by hand. Mail comments to: Liane Mattson Geologist USDA Forest Service P.O. Box 1030 Paonia, Colorado 81428 Fax Comments to: (970) 527-4151 Electronic comments will be accepted, and must be submitted as a Word document, or in rich text format. Electronic comments should be sent to comments-rocky-mountain-gmug= paonia(a~fs.fed.us. For electronically mailed comments, the sender should normally receive an automated electronic acknowledgement from the agency as confirmation of receipt. If the sender does not receive an automated acknowledgement of the receipt of comments, it is the sender's responsibility to ensure timely receipt by other means. UPS ^~,- Caring for [he Land and Serving People Printetl on Recytle0 Paper i~«'