GENERAL48825

• Permit No: C1980007
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 6/18/2004
• Doc Name: EIS Announcement
• From: Forest Service
• To: DMG
• Permit Index Doc Type: Other Permits
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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~+®" United States Forest Paonia P.O. Box 1030
Department of Service Ranger District N Rio Grande Ave.
Agriculture PHONE NO. 970-527-4131 Paonia, CO 81428
FAX [phone]
File Code: 2820-4/1950
RECEIVED Date: June 16, 2004
JUN 182004
Dear Interested Party,
Division of Minerals and Geology
The Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) is seeking comments and input from
the general public, organizations, and interested agencies on an environmental analysis that will consider
an application to lease federal coal.
The GMUG and BLM-Colorado State Office received an application from Ark Land Company for a
competitive federal coal lease on lands generally located in Sections 35 and 36, T 13 S, R 90 W; and
Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12, T 14 S, R 90W, 6`h PM, in Gunnison County, about 4 miles southeast of
Somerset, Colorado. Called the Dry Fork Lease-by-Application (Dry Fork LBA), the tract contains about
1,517 acres of federal coal reserves, and is overlain by National Forest System Lands administered by the
GMUG, Paonia Ranger District. The Dry Fork LBA lies adjacent to existing federal coal leases being
mined by Mountain Coa] Company (MCC) from the West Elk Mine. The Dry Fork LBA is shown on the
attached map.
The coal in the Dry Fork LBA would be recovered using underground mining techniques. Mountain Coal
Company, a company affiliated with Ark Land, would plan to extract the coal as part of a logical
extension of the company's current underground mining activities. There are an estimated 22 million tons
of projected coal reserves in the Dry Fork LBA in the B and E coal seams. MCC presently operates with a
longwall system of underground mining at the West Elk Mine, which is permitted with the Colorado
Division of Minerals and Geology (CDMG) for a production rate of 8.2 million tons of coal per year. No
increases in permitted coal production levels are proposed.
The GMUG will prepare the environmental analysis as required under the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA). The Forest Service is planning to disclose the effects of the proposed coal leasing in an
environmental impact statement (EIS). The USDI-Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement (OSM) and the Bureau of Land Management will participate in the analysis as cooperating
agencies.
The GMUG National Forests Supervisor is the responsible official far the Forest Service. The decision to
be made by the Forest Supervisor is whether or not to consent to the BLM leasing the coal in the
proposed Dry Fork LBA, and prescribe conditions for the protection of non-coal resources. The $LM-
Colorado State Director is the responsible official for the federal coal resource underlying National Forest
System lands. The decisions to be made by the BLM are whether or not to offer the federal coal reserves
for competitive leasing.
The EIS process for this project will include preparation of a reasonably foreseeable mining scenario for
the Dry Fork LBA that will be used as the basis for determining effects of mine subsidence on the land
surface. Land subsidence similar to that experienced over other areas mined with underground methods
on the in the adjacent and surrounding areas is expected.
Surface disturbance during the life of the lease might include exploration hole and groundwater
monitoring well drilling, methane drainage wells, geophysical surveys, ventilation facilities and
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