2013-04-11_REVISION - C1981018 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Under the No Action Alternative, the Deserado Mine LBA area would not be approved for mining. Criteria, HAP, and GHG emission associated with the proposed LBA at the Deserado Mine would not occur. However, as stated above, emissions rates or intensities would not increase under either alternative and therefore the emissions inventory can reasonably be expected to be the same for each alternative based on the fact that authorized production rates, and currently employed extraction and processing methodologies would not increase or change under either scenario. Cumulative Effects: Reasonably Foreseeable Cumulative Actions The following actions within the region are known or are reasonably foreseeable. • Potential Oil and Gas Development • Potential Oil Shale Development • Bonanza Power Station The leasing decision for the Deserado Mine would not authorize mining operations. The EA evaluates the potential impacts of mining the Deserado Mine, because mining is a logical consequence of issuing a lease for continued operation of the mine. The EA assesses the cumulative impact on the environment which results from the operation of the proposed mine when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions that would add to the anticipated impacts of the Proposed Action. The site - specific impacts analyzed in this EA are based on the assumption that if the lease is issued mining would proceed at the current production rate of approximately 2 million tons per year. We further assume that the applicant would be the lessee and extraction of the coal resource would proceed in accordance with all current permit conditions. In addition, it is also assumed all of the coal will be consumed by the Bonanza Power Station. Area Emissions The following emissions data is presented to the reader to provide a comprehensive picture of near field emissions sources. Given the distances between the Deserado Mine and other APCD sources with the region (approximately 37 km on average), it is unlikely that the majority of the mine's emissions (i.e., PM1o) which are not emitted via a smoke stack will become buoyant enough to travel the distance required to provide for a measurable cumulative impact within the region. The same can be said for oil and gas development in the region, which is significant. The primary emissions of concern for these activities have traditionally been NOx and VOCs (ozone precursors), neither of which are major emissions of concern from the Deserado Mine, and therefore the mine's contributions of these emissions in the regional context should produce on minor or insignificant impacts on potential regional ozone formation (see earlier discussion on CMM VOC data limitations). Emissions from the Bonanza Power Station have been most recently analyzed by EPA during review of a construction PSD application for a waste coal -fired combustor unit (WCFC) that Deseret Generation and Transmission Co- Operative recently submitted an application for. The permit was eventually remanded back to EPA for failure to include COz BACT requirements; however the statement of basis for issuing the permit for the other pollutants, and the associated DOI- BLM -CO- 110- 2012- 0023 -EA 28