Appeal Deciding Officer 9
<br />the proposed action and alternatives, and a listing of agencies and persons consulted.
<br />43 CFR § 3432.3(a) and (d) - Forest Service authority to attach appropriate lease stipulations to
<br />a coal lease modification.
<br />Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended (30 U.S.C. 181 et sec.) authorizes and governs leasing
<br />of public lands for development of deposits of coal ...
<br />Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act — 30 USC 1291(28) —
<br />(28) "surface coal mining operations" means --
<br />(A) activities conducted on the surface of lands in connection with a surface coal
<br />mine or subject to the requirements of section 516 surface operations and surface
<br />impacts incident to an underground coal mine the products of which enter
<br />commerce or the operations of which directly or indirectly affect interstate
<br />commerce. Such activities include excavation for the purpose of obtaining coal
<br />including such common methods as contour, strip, auger, mountaintop removal,
<br />box cut, open pit, and area mining, the uses of explosives and blasting, and in situ
<br />distillation or retorting, leaching or other chemical or physical processing, and the
<br />cleaning, concentrating, or other processing or preparation, loading of coal for
<br />interstate commerce at or near the mine site: Provided, however, That such
<br />activities do not include the extraction of coal incidental to the extraction of other
<br />minerals where coal does not exceed 16 2/3 per centum of the tonnage of minerals
<br />removed for purposes of commercial use or sale or coal explorations subject to
<br />section 512 of this Act; and
<br />(B) the areas upon which such activities occur or where such activities disturb
<br />the natural land surface Such areas shall also include any adjacent land the use
<br />of which is incidental to any such activities, all lands affected by the construction
<br />of new roads or the improvement or use of existing roads to gain access to the site
<br />of such activities and for haulage, and excavations, workings, impoundments,
<br />dams, ventilation shafts, entryways, refuse banks, dumps, stockpiles, overburden
<br />piles, spoil banks, culm banks, tailings, holes or depressions, repair areas, storage
<br />areas, processing areas, shipping areas and other areas upon which are sited
<br />structures, facilities, or other property or materials on the surface, resulting from
<br />rom
<br />or incident to such activities
<br />Background:
<br />Oxbow Mining, LLC (OMLLC) operates the Elk Creek Mine under a construction permit that
<br />was issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Air
<br />Pollution Control Division (APCD) on July 29, 2009. The permit is valid for a period of 5 years
<br />until July 29, 2014. The permit sets limits on the following: PM io , nitrogen oxides (NO and
<br />carbon monoxide (CO). A detailed air quality assessment, including modeling of the original
<br />lease, was conducted as part of the environmental analysis for the Elk Creek Coal Lease Tract in
<br />2000 (North Fork Coal FEIS, Tab 4). In this FEIS, an air quality assessment was completed for
<br />the original Oxbow mine, which was permitted by the State to produce up to 4.8 million tons of
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