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c? Q?MENT op Ty?'y? <br />? a <br />?igR??aa <br />United States Department of the Interior <br />FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE <br />Ecological Services <br />764 Horizon Drive, Building B <br />Grand Junction, Colorado 81506-3946 <br />IN REPLY REFER TO: <br />ES/CO:OSM <br />TAILS 65413-2011-SL-0042 <br />Kurtis R. Blunt <br />Colowyo Coal Company <br />5731 State Highway 13 <br />Meeker, Colorado 81641 <br />February 22, 2011 <br />'r (;F - <br />Fkb'L42011 wn, <br />UNialuil ui Ked <br />Iviining and <br />Dear Blunt: <br />?zsx U.S. <br />& uDLY" <br />SERVICE <br />This letter transmits U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) comments on the December 27, <br />2010, filing of the permit application for Colowyo Coal Company, L.P.'s (Colowyo) Coal Mine <br />Permit Revision (PR-03). Proposed surface and coal are federally (Bureau of Land Management <br />(BLM)), State, and privately (Colowyo) owned in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties, Colorado. <br />The proposed project includes expanding the permit boundary to incorporate the proposed <br />Collom Pit area (16,833.24 acres), for a total permit area of 29,084.20 acres. The applicant is <br />proposing to mine multiple seams in two separate pits in the Collom area. This would include a <br />250 million cubic-yard temporary out-of-pit spoil pile to be backfilled following mining. The <br />permit revision will include an increase in Colowyo's reclamation bond. <br />The primary concern of the Service regarding construction and operation of the proposed project <br />is avoidance of impacts to the threatened, endangered and candidate species, as well as species- <br />at-risk and their habitats within the project areas. The Service provides the following updated <br />list of federally listed threatened and endangered species, and potential candidates for future <br />listing, that could be imuacted by the proposed project. <br />Common. Name Scientific Name Status <br />Humpback chubC * Gila cypha E <br />Colorado pikeminnow C * Ptychocheilus lucius E <br />Bonytail chub C * Gila elegans E <br />Razorback sucker C * Xyrauchen texanus E <br />Mexican spotted owl Strix occidentalis lucida E <br />Greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus C <br />Yellow-billed cuckoo Coccyzus americanus C <br />Black-footed ferret Mustela nigri es E <br />Canada lynx Lvnx canadensis T <br />North American wolverine Gulo gulo luscus C <br />Ute ladies'-tresses orchid Spiranthes diluvialis T <br />Dudley bluffs bladde od Physaria congesta T