2012-01-23_APPLICATION CORRESPONDENCE - C2010088 (3)

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and CDOW by telephone and via e-mail. On August 24, 2011 CDOW concluded that the wildlife issues they identified earlier had been addressed and that they would have no further comment regarding the Fruit Loadout particularly with the involvement of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as described below. As stated above both the OSM and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) were notified of the Fruita Loadout application on October 1, 2010. No comments were received by the Division from the USFWS regarding the application. On January 6, 2011 the OSM requested specific information from the Division regarding the proposed Fruita Loadout and the nearby McClane Canyon Mine which is owned and operated by McClane Canyon Mine, LLC a subsidiary of CAM- Colorado, LLC. The Division sent the OSM the requested information including the Biologic Opinion from 2002 for the McClane Canyon Mine, and the following pertaining to the Fruita Loadout application; clarification on Exhibit 5 Vegetation Study, Permit Area Vegetation and Adjacent Area Vegetation Maps, and information pertaining to wetlands impacts and contact information for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Grand Junction. McClane Canyon Mining, LLC (MCM) submitted Permit Revision No. 2 (PR -2) for the McClane Canyon Mine during the same timeframe as the Fruita Loadout. PR -2 was received by the Division on November 1, 2010 and was under review simultaneous with the proposed Fruita Loadout project. PR -2 is being proposed by MCM for a mine plan expansion, new surface facilities and increased coal production. Clean coal from McClane Canyon Mine would be loaded onto trucks and hauled to the Fruita Loadout where it would be stockpiled and then conveyed to the unit train loadout. The proposed loadout will tie into the Union Pacific mainline west of Reed Wash. On January 27, 2011 the OSM requested information for the McClane Canyon Mine Permit Revision No. 2 application including Vegetation Information, Fish and Wildlife Information, maps and baseline studies, and the water depletion estimate information. These were sent to the OSM via FedEx on that same date. The Division did receive specific comments regarding PR -2 from the USFWS in a letter dated December 16, 2010. In this letter the USFWS acknowledged that the McClane Canyon Mine is also proposing a Loadout facility south of the Mine and that this loadout facility will cause additional water depletions to the Colorado River, which will be reviewed by the OSM. If OSM and the Mine determine that the water depletions associated with the loadout facility, or any other activities exceeds 7.49 acre - feet/year (current approved estimate for McClane Canyon Mine), OSM will reinitiate formal consultation with the USFWS. This letter from the USFWS was forwarded to CAM in our adequacy review letter for PR -2 dated February 15, 2011. OSM requested formal section 7 consultation with the USFWS regarding potential affects to endangered and threatened species on December 16, 2010 for the Fruita Loadout facility and on February 10, 2011 for the McClane Canyon Mine Permit Revision No. 2. The USFWS responded in a letter to the OSM dated June 24, 2011. In this letter the USFWS states that after conversations with the OSM they determined that a separate formal consultation was not necessary for the Loadout facility because it is associated with the Mine. However, there were outstanding issues that needed to be resolved before the Biological Opinion (BO) could be completed. A site visit to the proposed Fruita Loadout and the McClane Canyon Mine was arranged by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) so that all parties involved could become more familiar