Indian Affairs Bureau November 28, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), as Cooperating Agencies, intend to gather information necessary for preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Extension of the Absaloka Coal Mine on the Crow Indian Reservation, Montana. The proposed BIA action, taken under the Indian Mineral Development Act, is the approval of a coal lease by the Crow Tribe to Westmoreland Resources Inc. (WRI) and associated approval of allotted Indian and Crow tribal surface estate use agreements. In addition, the OSMRE will use this EIS to support a decision on the application for a surface mining permit to be filed by WRI involving the same acreage, commonly known as the Absaloka Mine ``South Extension;'' the MDEQ will use it in considering approval of permit revisions to facilitate mining of coal adjacent to the South Extension that is presently under the Absaloka Mine, which MDEQ administers; and the EPA may use the EIS in considering issuance of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for any point source water discharges on the Reservation. The purpose of this project is to extend the operating life of the Absaloka Mine and continue to provide an economic base for the Crow Tribe, while providing an energy source for the generation of electricity at distant power plants. This notice also announces a public scoping meeting to identify potential issues and alternatives to be considered in the EIS.