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• II. Background <br />The Bear underground coal mine is located in Gunnison <br />County, Colorado, next to the town of Somerset. The mine <br />has been in operation since 1934. About 8 acres have been <br />affected by surface disturbance to date. The total <br />permitted area of the Bear Mine contains about 1889 acres, <br />including the permit revision area associated with this <br />mining plan modification. Mining is expected to continue <br />for 2 years under Colorado Permit No. C-81-033 and this <br />mining plan modification. <br />The original mining plan for the Bear Mine was approved <br />under the Federal lands program on July 16, 1982, for mining <br />the C seam in Federal lease D-052501. Since that approval <br />there have been two other mining plan actions for the Bear <br />Mine. <br />In 1985, BCC subleased a part of Atlantic Richfield <br />Company's Federal lease C-0117192. BLM designated the <br />subleased area as Federal lease C-42481. The Bear Mine <br />mining plan for adding the C seam of Federal lease C-42481 <br />was approved on December 26, 1985. In 1989, BCC constructed <br />ramps down from the C seam underground workings to the B <br />seam, and a mining plan modification for mining the B seam <br />• in Federal leases D-052501 and C-42481 was approved on <br />June 8, 1989. In December 1993, BCC submitted this proposed <br />mining plan modification for extending B-seam mining into an <br />additional 165 acres of Federal lease C-42481. Approval of <br />this modification would increase the number of acres in the <br />approved mining plan to 716 acres. <br />The underground mining operations utilize room and pillar <br />mining methods. The B coal seam is mined at an average <br />production rate of about 500,000 tons per year. No <br />additional surface disturbance in the mining plan area will <br />result from this action. <br />A chronology of events related to the processing of the PAP <br />is included with the decision document. The information in <br />the PAP, as well as other information identified in the <br />decision document, has been reviewed by Colorado DMG staff <br />in coordination with the OSM Project Leader. <br />During the review of the PAP, no major issues were <br />identified. <br />The public was notified of the availability of the PAP for <br />review by publication of newspaper notices for four <br />consecutive weeks, with a last publication date of <br />January 12, 1994. No public comments on the PAP were <br />• received after the public notice was published. <br />