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Request for Hearing on TR-1 1 1 for the West Elk Mine (Permit No. C-1980-0007) Page 6 <br />June 20, 2008 <br />flare methane will violate DRMS's duty to "minimize disturbances and adverse impacts of the <br />operation on fish, wildlife, and related environmental values." Section 4.18(1) of the regulations. <br />Ideally, methane would be captured and transported for productive use because capture <br />will benefit the environment and the State's treasury. However, if it were found that capture and <br />use is impractical, flaring, as a second option, would reduce the global warming impacts of the <br />Mine with minimal expense to the operators. <br />Given the impacts of global warming and the potential impacts of wasting a valuable <br />resource, and the fact that no other State agency regulates methane venting, DRMS has clear <br />authority to require the Mine "[t]o the extent possible" to minimize the impacts of global <br />warming by requiring the use "the best technology currently available" so that DRMS "insure[s] <br />that society and the environment are protected from the adverse effects" of Mine operations. <br />Section 4.01.1(5), (9) of the regulations. <br />A. DRMS Should Require The Mine to Capture the Methane. <br />DRMS should require the Mine to capture methane so that it could be collected. Such an <br />approach would reduce or eliminate vented methane that contributes to global warming and <br />would conserve that methane for use. As the Forest Service noted in its analysis: "[i]f able to be <br />put to beneficial use, the estimated amount of gas that may be released from the E Seam could <br />heat approximately 34,800 to 39,500 homes." Exh. I (West Elk Final EIS) at 46. As noted <br />above, EPA has stated that proven technology exists to capture the methane. <br />Previously, Federal parties have objected to methane capture due to concerns over the <br />legal complexities of the mineral estate. This month, however, the Forest Service, as the surface <br />land manager, and the Bureau of Land Management, as the manager for onshore federal mineral <br />rights, have announced their intention to lease in August the rights for the coal mine methane <br />generated at the Mine. See BLM, Notice of Competitive Lease Sale, Oil and Gas (June 9, 2008), <br />excerpts attached as Exh. 5; Map, West Elk Area Lease Sale Parcels (June 16, 2008), attached as <br />Exh. 6 (displaying leases in and adjacent to West Elk permit boundary). These leases may <br />remove the perceived ownership obstacle that the Forest Service has previously cited as blocking <br />methane capture at the Mine.8 ROD at 9, excerpts attached as Exh. 7.9 <br />Unfortunately, the proposed August leases do not mandate methane capture, and so even <br />if these leases are sold, there is no guarantee that methane capture will actually take place. <br />DRMS must still, in order to fulfill its environmental protection duties, require methane capture <br />in any mine permit. <br />8 Our discussion of this alleged obstacle to methane capture is not an endorsement of the <br />validity of the Federal government's claims in this regard. <br />9 Further, the Forest Service has overcome the legal complexities surrounding leasing <br />coal Mine methane in Carbon County, Utah, where the Aberdeen Coal Mine is now leasing and <br />capturing coal Mine methane. See Exh. 2 (Appeal) at 23-24.