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• <br />1592M <br />PURPOSE AND NEED <br />ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT <br />Eagle Mines No. 5 and No. 6 Mine <br />Empire Energy Corporation <br />September 1987 <br />The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) received a <br />permit application package (PAP) involving the mining of leased Federal coal <br />at the Empire Energy Corporation (EEC) Eagle Mines No. 5 and No. 6 mine on <br />September 4, 1986. OSMRE determined that the proposed operations described <br />in the PAP required approval of a mining plan, as modified, by the Assistant <br />Secretary-Land and Minerals Management. Pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act <br />of 1920, as amended, section 523 of the Surface Mining Control and <br />Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA), and 30 CFR 746.14, the Assistant Secretary <br />must approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove the mining plan, as <br />modified, for the mining of the Federal coal in Federal leases C-30656, <br />D-056298, and C-0126480, as proposed in the PAP. This document assesses the <br />effects of the proposed mining and reclamation operations and alternative <br />actions available to the Assistant Secretary to determine if approval, <br />approval with conditions, or disapproval of the mining plan, as modified, <br />will have a significant impact on the human environment. <br />The Eagle Mines No. 5 and No. 6 underground coal mine is located in Moffat <br />County, Colorado, 7 miles southwest of Craig, Colorado. The No. 5 mine has <br />• been in operation since 1971. The permit area associated with the proposed <br />mining plan area contains approximately 6,840 acres, 1,100 acres of which <br />are leased Federal coal in the mining plan approval area for Federal leases <br />C-30656, D-056298, and C-0126480. <br />No new acreage is being added to the permit area, and no additional surface <br />disturbance will result from the proposed operations during the first five <br />years of mining. The underground mining operations will utilize longwall <br />and room and pillar mining methods. The Williams Fork Formation E and F <br />coal seams will be mined at an average production rate of approximately <br />4,000,000 tons per year. The Eagle No. 5 mine will continue to operate in <br />the F seam as previously approved. Under this mining plan action, the Eagle <br />No. 6 mine, which is being developed in the E seam, will expand into Federal <br />coal underlying the No. 5 mine F seam Federal coal. The No. 6 mine accesses <br />the E seam Coal through a rock tunnel driven from a mainway within the No. 5 <br />mine. Mining in the Eagle No. 9 mine (P seam) is completed and the portal <br />has been sealed. <br />In conjunction with OSMRE's review of the PAP, OSMRE also reviewed the <br />previously approved mining plan and mining plan modification and the Federal <br />permit number CO-0019, issued on November 2, 1983 and revised on July 20, <br />1984, for the Eagle Mines No. 5 and No. 9 mine. All terms and conditions of <br />the Federal permit will be included in the Colorado permit number C-81-044 <br />and the mining plan approval document. Because the Secretary of the <br />Interior and the State of Colorado have entered into a cooperative agreement <br />which provides for the full delegation to the State of the permitting <br />. responsibilities for operations on Federal lands pursuant to Section 523 of <br />SMCRA, Federal permit CO-0019 will be dissolved upon approval of this mining <br />plan, as modified. <br />