Coal leases, exploration licenses, etc.: Wyoming,

[Federal Register: August 6, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 151)]

[Notices]

[Page 42059-42061]

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:fr06au98-76]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[WY-030-1320-00 [WYW139975]]

Ark Land Company Coal Lease Application, Carbon County, WY

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Availability of Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and Notice of Public Hearing.

SUMMARY: Pursuant to 40 CFR 1500-1508, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability of a

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DEIS for Ark Land Company Coal Lease Application Serial Number WYW139975 in the Green River-Hams Fork Coal Production Region of Wyoming and the scheduled date and place for a public hearing pursuant to 43 CFR 3425.4. The purpose of the hearing is to solicit comments on the DEIS and on the fair market value (FMV) and Maximum Economic Recovery (MER) of the proposed lease tract.

DATES: The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. MDT, on September 9, 1998, at the Town of Hanna Administrative Office, 301 S. Adams, Hanna, Wyoming. There will be an informal session starting at 6 p.m. MDT, before the formal hearing, to answer questions regarding the Ark Land Company coal lease application and the coal leasing process. Written comments on the DEIS will be accepted for 60 days following the date the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes their Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. We expect the EPA notice will be published on August 14, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Please address questions, comments, or requests for copies of the DEIS to Area Manager, Great Divide Resource Area Office, Bureau of Land Management, P.O. Box 2407, 1300 North Third Street, Rawlins, Wyoming 82301.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Interested parties may direct questions, concerns, or obtain further information by contacting Karla Swanson, Great Divide Resource Area Manager, Brenda Vosika Neuman, Project Team Leader, or John Spehar, Planning and Environmental Coordinator, at the Bureau of Land Management Office, P.O. Box 2407, 1300 N. Third Street, Rawlins, Wyoming 82301, or by telephone at: (307) 328-4200.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the provisions of 43 CFR 3425.1, Ark Land Company, St. Louis, Missouri, filedan application with the BLM on September 20, 1996, to obtain a Federal coal lease on 4145.15 acres of Federal coal lands located in Carbon County, Wyoming.

The lease application area is located in the Carbon Basin, approximately 40 miles east of the town of Rawlins, 5 miles northwest of the town of Elk Mountain, 13 miles southwest of the town of Medicine Bow, and 12 miles southeast of the town of Hanna. The BLM has recommended that 1280 acres containing approximately 59 million tons of in-place coal reserves be included in the lease tract to allow a reasonable underground mine plan with enough reserves for a new mine start. The BLM has also recommended that 190 acres with no in-place coal reserves be removed from the original lease application.

One hundred and sixty acres of land were eliminated from the lease application because they lie outside of the outcrop line and contain no Hanna Formation coals. Thirty acres of land located in the Medicine Bow River floodplain were determined to be unsuitable for coal mining. The original lease application was for the following lands:

Sixth Principal Meridian

T. 20 N., R. 79 W.,

Sec. 6, lot 5. T. 20 N., R. 80 W.,

Sec. 4, lots 1, 2, and 3;

Sec. 6, lots 1 and 2, and SE1/4;

Sec. 12, N\1/2\NW\1/4\ and NW\1/4\NE\1/4\. T. 21 N., R. 79 W.,

Sec. 20, N\1/2\ and SW\1/4\;

Sec. 28, NW\1/4\;

Sec. 30, lots 1 to 4, inclusive, E\1/2\, and E\1/2\W\1/2\;

Sec. 32, NW\1/4\. T.21 N., R. 80 W.,

Sec. 26, All;

Sec. 28, W\1/2\ and SE\1/4\;

Sec. 32, E\1/2\ and SE\1/4\SW\1/4\;

Sec. 34, All.

The lands described contain 4145.15 acres, more or less.

The BLM has recommended that the following lands be excluded from the application:

Sixth Principal Meridian

T. 20 N., R. 80 W.,

Sec. 12, S\1/2\NW\1/4\NE\1/4\ and SE\1/4\NE\1/4\NW\1/4\. T. 21 N. R. 79 W.,

Sec. 28, NW\1/4\.

The lands described contain 190 acres, more or less.

The BLM has recommended that the following additional lands containing approximately 59 million tons of in-place coal reserves be included in the application:

Sixth Principal Meridian

T. 21 N., R. 80 W.,

Sec. 22, All;

Sec. 24, All.

The lands described contain 1280 acres, more or less. The tract, as amended by the BLM, contains a total of 5235.15 acres and approximately 149.7 million tons of in-place coal. On May 13, 1998, Ark Land Company agreed with BLM's recommendations and revised their original lease application to reflect the changes stated above. All lands included in the lease application have been evaluated in the document ``Environmental Assessment for Coal Planning Decisions in the Carbon Basin Area of the Great Divide Resource Area, BLM 1998''. BLM has determined these lands are suitable for further consideration for coal leasing and development.

Coal mining would be conducted by Arch of Wyoming, Inc. (Arch), an affiliate of Ark Land Company, if it is successful in obtaining a Federal coal lease in the proposed project area. Arch has operated coal mines in the Hanna Basin Region of Carbon County since 1972. The depletion of recoverable coal reserves in the Hanna Basin has led Arch to identify additional (local) coal resources in the Carbon Basin area that could utilize the existing infrastructure and meet existing contracts or long-term commitments. The Carbon Basin area, an area with a mixture of private, State, and Federal lands, is close to the Hanna Basin coal fields and provides a logical continuation of the Hanna Basin mining operations.

The DEIS analyzes two alternatives. The No Action Alternative is a ``no Federal leasing'' alternative rather than a ``no mining'' alternative. The ``no mining'' alternative is not analyzed in detail because 79 percent of the surface-minable coal within the coal project area is privately owned and BLM believes that the private surface coal could be economically mined even if the Federal coal is not leased. However, if no Federal coal were leased, the non-Federal underground coal reserves would become uneconomical to mine due to the checkerboard pattern of mineral ownership existing in the center of the basin. Under the Proposed Action, the BLM preferred alternative, the BLM would hold a competitive lease sale for surface-minable and underground-minable Federal coal. The Proposed Action includes the analysis of leasing Federal coal for both surface (Elk Mountain) and underground (Saddleback Hills) mining operations and examines 10 options for transporting coal to processing/loadout facilities.

The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is a cooperating agency in the preparation of the EIS. OSM is the Federal agency that administers surface coal mining under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.

Freedom of Information

Comments, including names and street addresses of respondents, will be available for public review at the addresses listed above during regular business hours (7:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m.), Monday through Friday, except holidays, and may be published as part of the Final EIS. Individual respondents may request confidentiality. If you wish to withhold your name or street address from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, you must state this prominently at the beginning of your written comment.

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Such requests will be honored to the extent allowed by law. All submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their entirety.

Dated: July 30, 1998. Alan L. Kesterke, Associate State Director.

[FR Doc. 98-21013Filed8-5-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-22-P