2009-01-23_REVISION - C1980007 (2)

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• ten (10.0) surface acres of Federal leases C-1362 and COC-56447 was conditionally approved' on July 31, 2008. The State's current permit area covers 17,154.90 acres and 422.45 surface acres are currently disturbed within the permit area. A total of 11,758.40 acres of Federal surface land, 13,795.0 acres of Federal coal and 85.2 million tons of Federal coal remain within the current permit area. The post mining land use within the currently approved mining plan area is rangeland and wildlife habitat. Mountain Coal Company, L.L.C. approached the USDA Forest Service with a proposal to construct, operate and reclaim up to 168 methane drainage wells on 146 well pads, one ventilation shaft and escapeway facility and the use or construction of approximately 22.6 miles of associated roads on lands administered by the USDA Forest Service, Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests. The proposed project would be completed in three phases, starting with the ventilation shaft and escapeway facility followed by two methane drainage wells applications. The USDA Forest Service elected to prepare the Deer Creek Shaft and E Seam Methane Drainage Wells Project Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to document the effects of Mountain Coal • Company, L.L.C's overall proposal because of the scale of the proposed surface disturbance and air quality concerns. The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) were cooperators in the preparation of the EIS. In the EIS the USDA Forest Service estimated the volume of methane to be released from the E-seam drainage wells based upon several assumptions and limited data provided by BLM for the B-seam. The B-seam methane releases from vertical wells, horizontal boreholes and mine fans average 13 to 17 million cubic feet a day. Horizontal systems are not expected to be used in the future reducing the release of methane by 2 million cubic feet. Coal recovery has been completed in the B-seam and the remaining recoverable Federal coal will come from the E-seam. The E-seam is estimated to contain only 50 to 60 percent of the methane in the B-seam and will average from 6.5 to 7.8 million cubic feet a day, or 2.4 to 2.8 billion cubic feet of methane released per year. Condition 8 of the July 31, 2008, mining plan modification conditional approval reads, "If', under a bilateral agreement with the Federal leasee, the Bureau of Land Management amends Feder a] leases C-1362 and COC-56477 to authorize the capture of coalbed gas that would otherwise be vented as required by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the operator shall capture the vented coalbed gas if such capture is economically feasible and does not jeopardize the safety and health of the miners. The capture operations must comply with the terms of the amended leases and all applicable laws. and re-Ullations. including those • administered by the U.S. Forest Service and the Colorado State program.'