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Decision Notice And Finding of No Significant Impact • <br />West Flatiron Federal Coal Lease by Application <br />COC-67011 <br />USDA Forest Service <br />Rocky Mountain Region <br />Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests <br />Gunnison County, Colorado <br />I. INTRODUCTION <br />An Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared [hat analyzes the surface impacts of leasing a tract of federal <br />coal reserves for underground coal mining. The USDI-Bureau of Land Management-Colorado State Office (BLM) <br />and the USDA-Forest Service received a competitive Coal Lease-by- Application (LBA) for the federal coal <br />reserves from Ark Land Company. The application was for coal reserves adjacent to existing leases and <br />underground workings of Mountain Coal Company's (MCC) West Elk Mine near Somerset, in Gunnison County, <br />Colorado. MCC and Ark Land aze subsidiaries of Arch Western Resources, LLC. The BLM participated in the EA <br />as a joint agency, and the USDI-Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) participated as a <br />cooperating agency. <br />-fhe lease application contains surface lands adtinistered by the USDA-Forest Service, Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, <br />and Gunnison National Forests, the BLM-Uncompahgre Field Office, and private lands owned by MCC. The coal in <br />the federal leases is administered by the BLM, Uncompahgre Field Office. The application considers leasing about • <br />691 acres of federal coal, containing about 2.3 million tons of recoverable reserves. <br />The Forest Service is responsible to make lands available for the BLM to consider leasing for coal resource <br />recovery. The Forest Service is also responsible for prescribing terms or conditions for the use and protection of <br />- - - ~ non-coal resources. - - - - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~- - - ~ ~~ ~ ~ _ - <br />MCC contracted with another company, S.Edwards Inc. (SEI) who conducted an envirorunental analysis for this <br />project. SEI prepared an environmental assessment (EA) that displays the effects of the proposed project. SEI <br />worked with a government interdisciplinary team (IDT) comprised of Forest Service, BLM and OSM resource <br />specialists. The team outlined the types of information required, then independently evaluated and verified the <br />information submitted in the EA. Inaccuracies in the submitted data weie noted and corrected. The BLM prepazed <br />an Unsuitability Analysis Report as required by 43 CFR 3461. <br />I have accepted the EA produced by SEI, as supplemented by the Forest Service ID team in the project record and <br />accept responsibility for its accuracy. My decision has been Informed by the Unsuitability Analysis Report. <br />II. DECISION <br />With respect to the National Forest System (NFS) lands in the LBA, I have decided to approve the Proposed Action <br />alternative (Alternative 1) as described in the EA (EA, Section 2.4.1), and summarized in Section IV of this <br />document. This decision gives the USDI-BLM my consent to offering the following NFS lands for coal leasing by <br />competitive bid: <br />In Township 13 South, Range 90 West, 6'~' Principal Meridian, <br />Section 13: Lots 2-7, 10-15 <br />Section 24: Lots 4 and 5 <br />Page 2 • <br />