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March 2000 Record of Decision Page 13 V. ISSUES CONSIDERED AND ADDRESSED This section addresses issues for the Elk Creek Lease Tract. Environmental effects are described in Chapter 3.0, Environmental Analysis, of the Final EIS. Environmental protection measures are found in Section 2.9, Reclamation Measures, Section 2.10, Management and Mitigation, and Section 2.11, Monitoring Measures, of the Final EIS. Appendix H, Standard BLM Coal Lease Terms, Conditions and Stipulations, of the Final EIS outlines standard BLM coal lease terms, conditions and stipulations. Maior Issues of Importance to the Public The major issues identified during the scoping process were socioeconomics, transportation of coal, subsidence related impacts to water resources and cumulative impacts. There were several references to "quality of life" issues. These were split mostly between socioeconomics and transportation impacts for the purpose of categorization. Comments on the Draft EIS generally addressed the same important issues. Quality of life issues were more focused on noise and the public health and safety issues associated with railroad crossings. Comments on the Draft EIS were used to focus and improve the analysis in the Final EIS. The EIS was written to consider. specific applications for accessing federal coal lands and provides the most comprehensive analysis of coal activity in the North Fork Valley undertaken in recent years. The applications are related in time and proximity and the agencies analyzed the three proposed actions under one EIS in order to best serve the requirements of NEPA. At the planning level, the Forest Service's Forest Plan and the BLM's Resource Management Plan made the lands analyzed in this EIS acceptable for coal leasing and development. In response to comments on the Draft EIS, the reasonable foreseeable development scenarios for coal development in the valley were expanded and improved. Analysis in any more detail of projects or scenarios considered speculative at best would not add to the NEPA or the decision making process. Differing expectations may have developed over the hope or belief that the BLM and/or the Forest Service may have more jurisdictional authority over some off-site impacts. While an EIS can be a vehicle for the entire community to consider the effects of coal development, it is not the vehicle many may have hoped for in terms of addressing all of the problems associated with growth and community issues in the North Fork Valley. This is particularly true of issues such as socioeconomics, transportation and noise. Great effort has been expended in the preparation of the EIS to identify those significant environmental issues which are deserving of study. The EIS discloses and considers the impacts associated with these issues to support an informed decision. We have strived to identify all practical mitigation measures and discuss the effectiveness of each measure regardless of jurisdiction. We further identify the entity or agency that would have authority to or ability to implement these measures. We do not believe it is the role of the federal land management agencies to assert some broader control over what goes on in the North Fork Valley and to do so may in fact be unwelcome and/or illegal. We are very supportive of the community's efforts to address the very real effects of expanded coal development. The North Fork Coal Working Group (NFCWG) is an excellent example of a successful partnership that has been formed within the local community. The group has made BLM -Elk Creek Coal Lease Tract