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FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT <br /> The technical and environmental assessment preceding this Finding of No <br /> Significant Impact identifies certain environmental impacts that would <br /> occur from continued development of the Mid Continental Resources, Inc. 's <br /> Coal Basin Mines on the 10,000 acres that include Federal Coal leases <br /> C-011646, C-0125457, C-09004 and C-09005. <br /> The Mid Continent Resources Inc. operation is located in the Roaring Fork <br /> River Drainage Basin area. Although the mine permit area does not <br /> include any alluvial valley floors (AVF), the loadout facility <br /> constructed prior to PL 95-87 is directly adjacent to a major AVF. A <br /> determination has been made by CMLRD and OSM that the loadout facility 1) <br /> is designed to preserve the hydrologic functions of the AVF, 2) would not <br /> interrupt, discontinue, or preclude farming on the AVF that is presently <br /> taking place, and 3) would not materially damage the quantity and quality <br /> of water in surface and ground-water systems that supply the AVF. <br /> A number of variances have been requested and approved and discussed <br /> within the TA. These variances were necessary because of the extensive <br /> pre-PL-95-87 disturbance at this mine site. After careful analysis by <br /> CMLRD and OSM, it has been ascertained that to bring the mine facilities <br /> into total compliance it would cause more environmental damage than to <br /> issue carefully planned and monitored variances. <br /> Impacts identified by OSM would be appropriately mitigated to reduce harm <br /> to the environment by the environmental protection measures specified in <br /> the mine plan. <br /> Based on the evaluation of impacts given in the Technical Analysis <br /> prepared by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division, the <br /> Environmental Assessment prepared by OSM, the concurrence prepared by the <br /> Bureau of Land Managment and the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S.G.S. EIS <br /> entitled West-Central Colorado Coal issued February 1979, I find that no <br /> significant impacts to the human environment would result from permitting <br /> of this operation. Preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement <br /> (EIS) under the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et <br /> seq. , is therefore, not required. <br /> lb �0,01 <br /> Allen D. Klei , Administrator <br /> Western Technical Center <br /> �/ R-3 <br /> Date <br />