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obtained for 160 acres between the second emergency lease and the Farmer's Mine Lease. He then outlined the current permit area which represents • approximately 2,000 acres. The long-term lease comprises about 5,000 acres which CWI is currently try- ing to permit. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about a stipulation to that lease. The lease is Number C-37210 and was obtained in May, 1984. In May, 1983, various meetings were held to talk about transportation alternatives. From those meetings, some of the alternatives were dis- carded, and based on input from the public and CWI, BLM arrived at the stipulation as follows: "The lessee, prior to mining coal, will prepare a NEPA quality environmental analysis assessing alternative methods of transpor- tation. The purpose of the assessment is to determine the most environmentally acceptable and least impacting route and/or means of hauling coal to the loadout facility. The assessment will con- sider all impacted resources. The alternatives assessed will be determined by BLM (Montrose Dis- trict) in consultation with the lessee, Delta County, and the State of Colorado, (Mined Land Reclamation Division and State Department of Transportation). The BLM, with the above consulting agencies, will determine if the analysis meets NEPA requirements upon its completion. The most environmentally and economically acceptable and least impacting route and/or means of hauling coal to the loadout facility will be submitted by the lessee as part of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division permit application. • The assessment will be accompanied by a separate analysis of the economic feasibility of each alternative assessed to be utilized in the decision making process." Matt went over the purpose of the meeting, stating that the main purpose is to give out copies of the EA as no one has had one before this time. Sec- ondly, the purpose was to answer questions and make clarifications if need be. The comment meeting on the EA will be in two weeks (October 24), also at the Town Hall at 7:30 p.m. During the following two weeks, Matt encouraged people having questions or needing clarification on the EA to contact Kathy Welt or himself. Matt then introduced Kathy Gordon Welt to discuss the format of the Envi- ronmental Assessment. Kathy stated that CWI has not had experience in writing EA's in the past; this is the first attempt within the company to prepare a document which is usually prepared by a government agency. She stated that this EA is a draft and requested opinions and comments so that it can be improved to the best of CWI's ability. While it looks like a great quantity of information, it has been written in a manner that should be easier to review. The final draft will probably be • condensed into a much smaller document. -2 -