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natural gas pipeline is more than ten miles away from the mine, across contested roadless areas, <br />so any capture project would require construction of a new pipeline over Forest Service lands, <br />and its own separate, lengthy, and controversial environmental review. See Final EIS at 45-46. <br />To impose a capture requirement under TR-111 or otherwise under the Mine Permit would <br />effectively shut down the West Elk Mine for the foreseeable future. <br />C. The Board Should Reiect Appellants' Demand for a Flarine Requirement. <br />Flaring as a means of mitigating CMM emissions is unproven and raises significant <br />health and safety concerns. There are no coal mines in the United States where flaring has been <br />approved for management of CMM emitted from an active mine. The health and safety concerns <br />raised by methane flaring were examined by the Forest Service under the NEPA process. In <br />considering the alternative of flaring, the Forest Service concluded that due to the potential for <br />mine explosions resulting from the flaring of methane gas, flaring is not approved by MSHA, the <br />federal agency charged with approving a ventilation plan for the Mine. See Exhibit 1, ROD, Mar. <br />7, 2008 at 10, app. D. In reaching this conclusion, the Forest Service specifically consulted <br />Allyn Davis, the District 9 Manger of MSHA with direct authority over the West Elk Mine. He <br />affirmed MSHA's position that "[t]here are too many questions remaining unanswered, no <br />evaluations and no actual testing in a no-risk mine type situation that demonstrates the system's <br />safety" and that as a result MSHA would not "approve the incorporation of such a system into <br />the ventilation plan at the West Elk Mine at the present time." Exhibit 4, Davis Letter. <br />Appellants disagree with MSHA's conclusions, ask this Board to disregard the judgment of <br />MSHA on the safety and feasibility of flaring, and require the West Elk Mine to flare the <br />methane. This will require the shutdown of the mine while the mine conducts the evaluations, <br />field testing and safety analyses necessary to address MSHA's concerns - testing of <br />indeterminate duration and uncertain results. <br />In addition to the concerns with flaring relating to the safety of miners, flaring would <br />involve numerous open flames and substantial infrastructure in a remote National Forest. Any <br />flaring system will create substantial maintenance demands in rough country, in a context where <br />maintenance errors or omissions could be fatal. The health and safety concerns raised by <br />4842-4129-1266\7 8