Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Absaloka Mine Crow Reservation South Extension Coal Lease Approval, Mine Development Plan and Related Federal and State Permitting Actions, Big Horn County, MT, 15189-15191 [E8-5341]
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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 56 / Friday, March 21, 2008 / Notices
January 1995. A Recovery Plan for the
species was published in September
2001.
The Service has made a preliminary
determination that the proposed
Agreement and permit application are
eligible for categorical exclusion under
the National Environmental Policy Act
of 1969 (NEPA). The basis for this
determination is contained in an
Environmental Action Statement and
low-effect screening form, which are
also available for public review.
DATES: To ensure consideration, we
must receive your written comments on
or before April 21, 2008.
ADDRESSES: Send your comments or
request information by any of the
following methods:
• U.S. Mail: Written comments
should be addressed to the Field
Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Chicago Field Office, 1250 S.
Grove, Suite 103, Barrington, IL 60010.
• Facsimile: Written comments may
be faxed to (847) 381–2285.
• E-Mail: sha_dupagecounty@fws.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr.
Jeffrey Mengler, Chicago Field Office
(see ADDRESSES); telephone: (847) 381–
2253.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Availability of Documents
Individuals wishing copies of the
permit application, copies of our
preliminary Environmental Action
Statement, and/or copies of the full text
of the Agreement, including a map of
the proposed permit area, should
contact the office and personnel listed
in the ADDRESSES section above. Copies
of the draft Agreement are also available
for public review during normal
business hours (8–4:30) at the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service’s Regional Office,
located at 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling,
Minnesota 55111, and at the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service’s Chicago Field
Office, located at 1250 S. Grove, Suite
103, Barrington, IL 60010. Documents
are also available for review at the
Service’s Regional Web site at: https://
www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered/
permits/hcp/.
mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES
Public Availability of Comments
Public requests for comments
submitted will be handled in
accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act. Our practice is to make
comments, including names and home
addresses of respondents, available for
public review during regular business
hours. Individual respondents may
request we withhold their home address
from the record, which we will honor to
the extent allowable by law. If a
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18:33 Mar 20, 2008
Jkt 214001
respondent wishes us to withhold his/
her name and/or address, this must be
stated prominently at the beginning of
the comment.
Draft Safe Harbor Agreement
Under a Safe Harbor Agreement,
participating landowners voluntarily
undertake management activities on
their property to enhance, restore, or
maintain habitat benefiting species
listed under the Act, Safe Harbor
Agreements, and the subsequent
enhancement of survival permits that
are issued pursuant to Section
10(a)(1)(A) of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et
seq.), encourage private and other nonFederal property owners to implement
conservation measures for federally
listed species by assuring property
owners that they will not be subjected
to increased land use restrictions as a
result of efforts to attract or increase the
numbers or distribution of a listed
species on their property. Application
requirements and issuance criteria for
enhancement of survival permits
through Safe Harbor Agreements are
found in 50 CFR 17.22(c).
Land subject to this Agreement (i.e.,
enrolled land) involve approximately 14
acres within the Waterfall Glen Forest
Preserve District in DuPage County,
Illinois. The land consists of mowed turf
grass, several buildings, a gravel
driveway, several picnic shelters, septic
systems, and a series of fish ponds that
are groundwater fed via a system of
pipes and artesian wells. Currently, the
land does not provide any suitable
habitat for HED.
The purpose of this SHA is to
facilitate management actions that
results in an increased population of
HED on land and water within Waterfall
Glen Forest Preserve in DuPage County,
Illinois. Specifically, this refers to
management actions proposed for the
fish farm parcel and adjoining land
within said preserve that is owned and
managed by the District, a local public
agency. Without the Agreement and
proposed management actions, the
enrolled land is unlikely to support any
HED in the foreseeable future. The
proposed duration of the Agreement and
permit is 15 years.
Upon approval of this Agreement, and
consistent with the Service’s Safe
Harbor Policy published in the Federal
Register on June 17, 1999 (64 FR 32717),
the Service would issue a permit to the
District authorizing take of HED
incidental to the implementation of the
management activities specified in the
Agreement and other lawful uses of the
properties, including normal routine
land management activities, and/or to
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15189
return to pre-Agreement conditions
(baseline).
Decisions
We will evaluate this permit
application, associated documents, and
comments submitted thereon to
determine whether the permit
application meets the requirements of
section 10(a)(1)(A) of the Act. If we
determine that the requirements are
met, we will sign the Agreement and
issue an enhancement of survival permit
to the Applicant for take of HED
incidental to otherwise lawful activities,
in accordance with the terms of the
Agreement. We will not make our final
decision until after the end of the 30day comment period and we will fully
consider all comments received during
the comment period.
Dated: February 15, 2008.
Lynn Lewis,
Assistant Regional Director, Acting,
Ecological Services, Region 3, Fort Snelling,
Minnesota.
[FR Doc. E8–5741 Filed 3–20–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–55–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Draft Environmental Impact Statement
for the Proposed Absaloka Mine Crow
Reservation South Extension Coal
Lease Approval, Mine Development
Plan and Related Federal and State
Permitting Actions, Big Horn County,
MT
Bureau of Indian Affairs,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: This notice advises the public
that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
and the Montana Department of
Environmental Quality (MDEQ) as joint
lead agencies, with the Crow Tribe of
Indians, the Office of Surface Mining
Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE),
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), as cooperating agencies,
intend to file a Draft Environmental
Impact Statement (DEIS) with the EPA
for the proposed extension of the
existing Absaloka mine onto the Crow
Indian Reservation and for related
Federal and state permitting actions;
and that the DEIS is now available for
public review. The purpose of the
proposed action is to maximize the
economic benefit from the coal trust
resource by continuing to provide
benefits to the Crow Tribe, including
royalty, tax income and employment; as
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15190
Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 56 / Friday, March 21, 2008 / Notices
well as allow Westmoreland Resources
Inc. (WRI) to continue to access coal
resources, owned by the Crow Tribe, for
the sale to customers using it for electric
power generation. This notice also
announces a public hearing to receive
comments on the DEIS.
DATES: Written comments on the DEIS
must arrive by May 5, 2008. The public
hearing will be held April 10, 2008,
beginning at 7 p.m. and continuing until
all those who register to make
statements have been heard.
ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry
written comments to George Gover,
Superintendent; Crow Agency, P.O. Box
69; Crow Agency Montana. You may
also comment via the Internet to:
westmorelandeis@mt.gov. Please submit
Internet comments as an ASCII file,
avoiding the use of special characters
and any form of encryption. Please
include your name and return address
in your Internet message. If you do not
receive a confirmation from the system
that we have received your Internet
message, contact Greg Hallsten at 406–
444–3276.
You may review the DEIS at BIA,
Weaver Avenue, Building 2, Crow
Agency, Montana; BIA, Rocky Mountain
Regional Office, 316 N. 26th Street
(Environmental, Cultural and Safety—
Room 4433), Billings Montana; BLM,
Montana State Office (Solid Minerals
section), 5001 Southgate Drive, Billings,
Montana; EPA, 10 W. 15th Street Suite
3200, Helena Montana; MDEQ, 1520 E.
6th Avenue, Helena, Montana; the Crow
Tribal Office, Crow Agency, Montana;
Big Horn County Library, Hardin,
Montana; or Little Bighorn College
Library, Crow Agency, Montana. The
document is available for review on the
Internet at: deq.mt.gov. Computer disk
copies of the document may be obtained
by contacting George Gover,
Superintendent, Crow Agency-BIA, at
406–638–2672.
The public hearing will be at the Big
Horn County Courthouse, 121 3rd Street
West, Hardin, Montana.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rick
Stefanic, 406–247–7911.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The WRI
has operated the Absaloka Mine on the
existing Tract III Crow Indian coal lease
in the Crow Ceded Area since 1974. The
WRI proposes to advance surface coal
mining operations southward onto the
Crow Reservation pursuant to the terms
of an agreement with the Crow Tribe
under the Indian Mineral Development
Act (IMDA). The legal description for
the acreage on the Reservation involves
coal basically within T.1S, R.37E.,
sections 1, 12, 13; and T.1S., R.37E.,
sections 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20,
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18:33 Mar 20, 2008
Jkt 214001
and 21; Montana Principal Meridian.
This area totals 3,660.23 acres in Big
Horn County, Montana. All of the
minerals are owned by the Crow Tribe.
The surface estate is owned by the Crow
Tribe (32%), allotted Indian owners
(14%), and non-Indian fee owners
(54%).
The DEIS analyzes three alternatives,
the Proposed Action, Alternative One,
and No Action. Under the Proposed
Action, the MDEQ and OSMRE would
approve Absaloka Mine’s proposed
Tract III Revision. The BIA would
approve the IMDA lease for the South
Extension, as well as the surface use
agreements between the allottee surface
owners and WRI; the OSMRE would
approve the mining permit for the South
Extension. Under this alternative,
approximately 76.6 million tons of
additional coal would be recovered and
the mine life would be extended until
about 2023.
Under Alternative One, WRI would
not implement the South Extension
development plan on the Crow Indian
Reservation if the BIA does not approve
the IMDA lease for the South Extension
tract. Furthermore, because the South
Extension includes allotted trust lands,
the South Extension development plan
would not be implemented if the BIA
does not approve all surface use
agreements between the allottee surface
owners and WRI. The coal contained in
the South Extension tract on the Crow
Indian Reservation would not be mined.
The WRI would, however, receive
approval from MDEQ and OSMRE to
revise Absaloka Mine’s existing mine
and reclamation plan to include the
Tract III Revision area. Under this
alternative, approximately 13 million
tons of additional coal would be mined
and the mine life would be extended to
about 2011.
Under the No Action Alternative,
none of the proposed actions would
occur and WRI would not implement
the South Extension development plan.
The remaining (already permitted) 14
million tons of in-place coal reserves
would be mined by approximately 2009
at the current 6.5 to 7.0 million-ton
annual production rate.
In addition to the BIA’s proposed
action alternatives described above, the
DEIS analyzes the proposed action for
the EPA to issue a Clean Water Act
National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) permit for
discharges of stormwater associated
with the proposed mine expansion onto
the Crow Indian Reservation. The
proposed stormwater management
alternative is for EPA Region 8 to issue
an NPDES permit for the use of 24
sediment traps to contain the 2-year, 24-
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
hour runoff event during the operational
phase, which could be reduced in size
to small depressions as a best
management practice during the
reclamation phase. The second
alternative analyzed is to issue an
NPDES permit for the use of
conventional sediment ponds to detain
the 10-year, 24-hour runoff event plus
sediment storage, with pond size
reduced to detain the 2-year, 24-hour
runoff event plus sediment storage
during the reclamation phase for all
discharges to Sarpy Creek and to the
Middle Fork of Sarpy Creek. The third
alternative is to issue an NPDES permit
for the use of a single large dam on the
main stem of the Middle Fork of Sarpy
Creek downstream of mine operations.
The No Action alternative for the
proposed stormwater management
proposal corresponds with BIA
alternatives that do not involve
expansion of the mine onto the Crow
Indian Reservation, in which case, the
EPA would not issue an NPDES
stormwater permit.
The DEIS analyzes the potential
direct, indirect, and cumulative
environmental impacts of the proposed
action and alternatives on geology,
paleontology, minerals, climate, air
quality, soil, surface water and
groundwater, land use, range resources,
vegetation, wetlands, noxious weeds,
wildlife and fisheries, threatened and
endangered species, recreation, cultural
resources, socioeconomics,
environmental justice, transportation,
visual resources, health and safety,
noise, and fire management.
Public Comment Availability
Comments, including names and
addresses of respondents, will be
available for public review at the BIA
address shown in the ADDRESSES
section, during business hours, 8 a.m. to
4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except holidays. Before including your
address, telephone number, e-mail
address, or other personal identifying
information in your comment, you
should be aware that your entire
comment—including your personal
identifying information—may be made
publicly available at any time. While
you can ask us in your comment to
withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
Authority
This notice is published in
accordance with section 1503.1 of the
Council of Environmental Quality
Regulations (40 CFR, Parts 1500 through
1508) implementing the procedural
E:\FR\FM\21MRN1.SGM
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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 56 / Friday, March 21, 2008 / Notices
requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.),
Department of the Interior Manual (516
DM 1–6), and is in the exercise of
authority delegated to the Director,
Office of Environmental Policy and
Compliance, via 516 DM 6.3 B. and
Environmental Statement Memorandum
ESM04–12.6(e).
Willie R. Taylor,
Director, Office of Environmental Policy and
Compliance.
[FR Doc. E8–5341 Filed 3–20–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–W7–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Draft Environmental Impact Statement
for the Proposed Enterprise Rancheria
Gaming Facility and Hotel Fee-to-Trust
Acquisition Project, Yuba County, CA
Bureau of Indian Affairs,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: This notice advises the public
that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
as lead agency, with the Enterprise
Rancheria of Estom Ymeka Maidu Tribe
(Tribe), National Indian Gaming
Commission, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and Yuba
County, California, as cooperating
agencies, intends to file a Draft
Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)
with the EPA for the Tribe’s proposed
Gaming Facility and Hotel Fee-to-Trust
Acquisition Project to be located within
unincorporated Yuba County, and that
the DEIS is now available for public
review. This review is part of the
administrative process that evaluates
tribal applications that seek to have the
United States take land into trust
pursuant to 25 CFR part 151. We will
consider public comments carefully
prior to deciding whether to approve or
disapprove this application. This notice
also announces a public hearing to
receive comments on the DEIS.
DATES: Written comments on the DEIS
must arrive by May 5, 2008. A public
hearing will be held on April 9, 2008,
at the Elk’s Lodge, 920 D Street,
Marysville, California, 95901–5322,
from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., or until all those
who register to make comments have
been heard.
ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry
written comments to Amy Dutschke,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific
Regional Office, Bureau of Indian
Affairs, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento,
California 95825. Please include your
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18:33 Mar 20, 2008
Jkt 214001
name, return address, and the caption,
‘‘DEIS Comments, Enterprise Rancheria,
Gaming Facility and Hotel Fee-to-Trust
Acquisition Project,’’ on the first page of
your written comments.
The DEIS will be available for review
at the Yuba County Public Library, 303
2nd Street, Marysville, California 95901;
the Sutter County Library, 720 Forbes
Avenue, Yuba City, California 95991,
and the Butte County Library, 1820
Mitchell Avenue, Oroville, California
95966. General information for the Yuba
County Public Library can be obtained
by calling (530) 749–7380. For
information on the Sutter County
Library please call (530) 822–7137. For
the Butte County Library, please call
(530) 538–7641.
If you would like to obtain a copy of
the DEIS, please write or call John
Rydzik, Chief, Division of
Environmental, Cultural Resource
Management and Safety, Pacific Region,
Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2800 Cottage
Way, Room W–2820, Sacramento,
California 95825, telephone (916) 978–
6042. You may view an electronic
version of the DEIS at: https://
www.EnterpriseEIS.com.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John
Rydzik, (916) 978–6042.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Tribe
has requested that the BIA take into
trust 40 acres of land currently held in
fee by the Tribe, on which the Tribe
proposes to construct a gaming facility,
hotel, parking areas and other facilities.
The proposed 40-acre site (Yuba site) is
located in unincorporated Yuba County,
approximately four miles southeast of
the Community of Olivehurst, near the
intersection of Forty Mile Road and
State Route 65.
The proposed project includes the
development of a 207,760 square-foot
gaming facility and a 107,125 squarefoot hotel on the Yuba site. The twostory gaming facility would include a
casino floor, food and beverage areas
(consisting of a buffet, gourmet
restaurant, and bar), meeting space,
guest support services, offices, and
security area. The resort would include
an eight-story hotel with 170 rooms, a
pool area, an exercise room, retail space
and an arcade. Access to the site would
be provided from Forty Mile Road.
The range of alternatives considered
in the DEIS: includes (A) the proposed
casino and hotel alternative, (B) a
reduced intensity alternative, (C) a
water park and hotel alternative, (D) a
reduced intensity—Butte County
alternative and (E) a no action
alternative. Environmental issues
addressed in the DEIS include land
resources, water resources, air quality,
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15191
biological resources, cultural resources,
socioeconomic conditions,
environmental justice, transportation,
land use, agriculture, public services,
noise, hazardous materials, visual
resources, cumulative effects, indirect
effects, growth inducing effects and
mitigation measures.
The BIA held a public scoping
meeting for the EIS on June 9, 2005, at
the Elk’s Lodge in Marysville,
California.
Public Comment Availability
Comments, including names and
addresses of respondents, will be
available for public review at the BIA
address shown in the ADDRESSES
section, during business hours, 8 a.m. to
4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except holidays. Before including your
address, phone number, e-mail address,
or other personal identifying
information in your comment, you
should be aware that your entire
comment—including your personal
identifying information—may be made
publicly available at any time. While
you can ask us in your comment to
withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
Authority
This notice is published in
accordance with section 1503.1 of the
Council of Environmental Quality
Regulations (40 CFR, Parts 1500 through
1508) implementing the procedural
requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.), and
the Department of the Interior Manual
(516 DM 1–6), and is in the exercise of
authority delegated to the Assistant
Secretary—Indian Affairs by 209 DM 8.l.
Dated: March 4, 2008.
Carl J. Artman,
Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. E8–5342 Filed 3–20–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–W7–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[UT–062–08–1220–PM]
Notice of Emergency Motorized
Vehicle Closure and Restrictions for
Specified Routes During the 2008
Moab Jeep Safari; Moab Field Office,
UT
AGENCY:
Bureau of Land Management,
Interior.
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 56 (Friday, March 21, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15189-15191]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-5341]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Absaloka
Mine Crow Reservation South Extension Coal Lease Approval, Mine
Development Plan and Related Federal and State Permitting Actions, Big
Horn County, MT
AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality
(MDEQ) as joint lead agencies, with the Crow Tribe of Indians, the
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), as cooperating agencies, intend to file a Draft
Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) with the EPA for the proposed
extension of the existing Absaloka mine onto the Crow Indian
Reservation and for related Federal and state permitting actions; and
that the DEIS is now available for public review. The purpose of the
proposed action is to maximize the economic benefit from the coal trust
resource by continuing to provide benefits to the Crow Tribe, including
royalty, tax income and employment; as
[[Page 15190]]
well as allow Westmoreland Resources Inc. (WRI) to continue to access
coal resources, owned by the Crow Tribe, for the sale to customers
using it for electric power generation. This notice also announces a
public hearing to receive comments on the DEIS.
DATES: Written comments on the DEIS must arrive by May 5, 2008. The
public hearing will be held April 10, 2008, beginning at 7 p.m. and
continuing until all those who register to make statements have been
heard.
ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry written comments to George Gover,
Superintendent; Crow Agency, P.O. Box 69; Crow Agency Montana. You may
also comment via the Internet to: westmorelandeis@mt.gov. Please submit
Internet comments as an ASCII file, avoiding the use of special
characters and any form of encryption. Please include your name and
return address in your Internet message. If you do not receive a
confirmation from the system that we have received your Internet
message, contact Greg Hallsten at 406-444-3276.
You may review the DEIS at BIA, Weaver Avenue, Building 2, Crow
Agency, Montana; BIA, Rocky Mountain Regional Office, 316 N. 26th
Street (Environmental, Cultural and Safety--Room 4433), Billings
Montana; BLM, Montana State Office (Solid Minerals section), 5001
Southgate Drive, Billings, Montana; EPA, 10 W. 15th Street Suite 3200,
Helena Montana; MDEQ, 1520 E. 6th Avenue, Helena, Montana; the Crow
Tribal Office, Crow Agency, Montana; Big Horn County Library, Hardin,
Montana; or Little Bighorn College Library, Crow Agency, Montana. The
document is available for review on the Internet at: deq.mt.gov.
Computer disk copies of the document may be obtained by contacting
George Gover, Superintendent, Crow Agency-BIA, at 406-638-2672.
The public hearing will be at the Big Horn County Courthouse, 121
3rd Street West, Hardin, Montana.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rick Stefanic, 406-247-7911.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The WRI has operated the Absaloka Mine on
the existing Tract III Crow Indian coal lease in the Crow Ceded Area
since 1974. The WRI proposes to advance surface coal mining operations
southward onto the Crow Reservation pursuant to the terms of an
agreement with the Crow Tribe under the Indian Mineral Development Act
(IMDA). The legal description for the acreage on the Reservation
involves coal basically within T.1S, R.37E., sections 1, 12, 13; and
T.1S., R.37E., sections 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, and 21;
Montana Principal Meridian. This area totals 3,660.23 acres in Big Horn
County, Montana. All of the minerals are owned by the Crow Tribe. The
surface estate is owned by the Crow Tribe (32%), allotted Indian owners
(14%), and non-Indian fee owners (54%).
The DEIS analyzes three alternatives, the Proposed Action,
Alternative One, and No Action. Under the Proposed Action, the MDEQ and
OSMRE would approve Absaloka Mine's proposed Tract III Revision. The
BIA would approve the IMDA lease for the South Extension, as well as
the surface use agreements between the allottee surface owners and WRI;
the OSMRE would approve the mining permit for the South Extension.
Under this alternative, approximately 76.6 million tons of additional
coal would be recovered and the mine life would be extended until about
2023.
Under Alternative One, WRI would not implement the South Extension
development plan on the Crow Indian Reservation if the BIA does not
approve the IMDA lease for the South Extension tract. Furthermore,
because the South Extension includes allotted trust lands, the South
Extension development plan would not be implemented if the BIA does not
approve all surface use agreements between the allottee surface owners
and WRI. The coal contained in the South Extension tract on the Crow
Indian Reservation would not be mined. The WRI would, however, receive
approval from MDEQ and OSMRE to revise Absaloka Mine's existing mine
and reclamation plan to include the Tract III Revision area. Under this
alternative, approximately 13 million tons of additional coal would be
mined and the mine life would be extended to about 2011.
Under the No Action Alternative, none of the proposed actions would
occur and WRI would not implement the South Extension development plan.
The remaining (already permitted) 14 million tons of in-place coal
reserves would be mined by approximately 2009 at the current 6.5 to 7.0
million-ton annual production rate.
In addition to the BIA's proposed action alternatives described
above, the DEIS analyzes the proposed action for the EPA to issue a
Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
permit for discharges of stormwater associated with the proposed mine
expansion onto the Crow Indian Reservation. The proposed stormwater
management alternative is for EPA Region 8 to issue an NPDES permit for
the use of 24 sediment traps to contain the 2-year, 24-hour runoff
event during the operational phase, which could be reduced in size to
small depressions as a best management practice during the reclamation
phase. The second alternative analyzed is to issue an NPDES permit for
the use of conventional sediment ponds to detain the 10-year, 24-hour
runoff event plus sediment storage, with pond size reduced to detain
the 2-year, 24-hour runoff event plus sediment storage during the
reclamation phase for all discharges to Sarpy Creek and to the Middle
Fork of Sarpy Creek. The third alternative is to issue an NPDES permit
for the use of a single large dam on the main stem of the Middle Fork
of Sarpy Creek downstream of mine operations. The No Action alternative
for the proposed stormwater management proposal corresponds with BIA
alternatives that do not involve expansion of the mine onto the Crow
Indian Reservation, in which case, the EPA would not issue an NPDES
stormwater permit.
The DEIS analyzes the potential direct, indirect, and cumulative
environmental impacts of the proposed action and alternatives on
geology, paleontology, minerals, climate, air quality, soil, surface
water and groundwater, land use, range resources, vegetation, wetlands,
noxious weeds, wildlife and fisheries, threatened and endangered
species, recreation, cultural resources, socioeconomics, environmental
justice, transportation, visual resources, health and safety, noise,
and fire management.
Public Comment Availability
Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be
available for public review at the BIA address shown in the ADDRESSES
section, during business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except holidays. Before including your address, telephone
number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in
your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including
your personal identifying information--may be made publicly available
at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your
personal identifying information from public review, we cannot
guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Authority
This notice is published in accordance with section 1503.1 of the
Council of Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR, Parts 1500
through 1508) implementing the procedural
[[Page 15191]]
requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.), Department of the Interior Manual
(516 DM 1-6), and is in the exercise of authority delegated to the
Director, Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance, via 516 DM 6.3
B. and Environmental Statement Memorandum ESM04-12.6(e).
Willie R. Taylor,
Director, Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance.
[FR Doc. E8-5341 Filed 3-20-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-W7-P
