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Mathews, Dan From: Mathews, Dan Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 6:46 PM To: Cattany, Ron Cc: Brown, Sandy Subject: CAM Red Cliff Coal Mine EIS Scoping Meetings Ron, I attended, per your request the EIS "Agency Scoping Meeting", which was hosted by the BLM Grand Junction Resource Area Office yesterday morning (8/24/06). The meeting basically was a forum to gather together representatives of all of the various federal, state, and local agencies that will have some role in authorizing or permitting various aspects of the proposed coal mine and rail spur project. Catherine Robertson, the Resource Area Director, did an intro, and had all of the representatives introduce themselves and give a little spiel. Basically, who you are, what your agency does, how your agency will be involved in this process, and what your agency's permitting process entails. I think most of the agencies that will have any role in the process were represented, with the notable exception of CDOW. They have some definite thoughts and concerns about the project, specifically regarding site locations and activity impacts on elk winter range, so I was surprised they didn't show up. Catherine said they (DOW) had already relayed their concerns to BLM. CAM Colorado gave a brief presentation on who they are and a project overview of the proposed mine and rail spur. The CAM rep was Nick Glancy, a Vice President with CAM Holdings LLC. CAM Holdings is the parent company of CAM Mining LLC (operator of the McClane Canyon Mine) and CAM Colorado LLC (operator of the proposed Red Cliff Mine). Jim Stover, engineering consultant for CAM did a brief follow-up with a little more detail. Dave Lehmann who is managing the EIS for BLM briefly outlined the EIS process, and I think Bill Killam of URS consultants (lead consultants on the EIS) also piped in. Most of the time was spent listening to the myriad agency reps try to explain what it is they do and how their process works. BLM had prepared a draft summary of the permits required and agency roles prior to the meeting, but they were pretty far off the mark in describing the roles of DRMS and OSM. Ron Singh from OSM was at the meeting, and he and I worked with Dave Lehmann to re-write the paragraphs on DRMS and OSM. This Summary was finalized and was handed out at the Public Scoping Meeting held in Fruita from 4:00 to 7:00 in the evening. I went to the public meeting too, and stayed for about an hour and a half. Glancy did a 5 minute overview and Dave Lehmann did a 2 minute explanation of the EIS process at 4, 5, 6, and 7. The rest of the event was set up to have people mill around and look at maps, posters, photos, etc., with BLM staffers and Consultants on hand to explain, listen, and encourage folks to leave written comments. I just wandered around and listened. They did have coffee and snacks too; white chocolate macadamia nut cookies that were very good. There were a some local people pretty upset because their property values were going to go in the tank, what with a railroad 20 yards from their front door. There was one lady whom I thought might have been with an environmental group. She said whe was from Loveland, and I noticed she spent a lot of time asking Jim Stover about how a coal processing plant and disposal facility operates, and taking lots of notes. I stayed until 5:30, had about all I could take for one day. I'll mail over a copy of the Agency Scoping Meeting sign-up sheet, along with the Agency/Permits summary sheet they passed out at the public meeting (with the edited version of the DRMS and OSM paragraphs). Also the Fact Sheet and map they distributed at the public meeting. Let me know if you have any questions. Dan