[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 213 (Friday, November 3, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 55815-55816]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-27338]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

30 CFR Parts 764 and 942


Receipt of a Petition To Designate Lands Unsuitable for Mining 
and To Prepare a Petition Evaluation Document and Environmental Impact 
Statement

AGENCY: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a combined petition evaluation 
document/environmental impact statement, and notice of scoping meeting 
and scoping comment period for the petition.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Office of Surface Mining 
Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) intends to prepare a combined 
petition evaluation document/environmental impact statement (PED/EIS) 
for the decision on a petition to designate certain lands within the 
watershed and viewshed of Fall Creek Falls State Park and Natural Area 
in Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties, Tennessee, as unsuitable for surface 
coal mining and reclamation operations in accordance with Section 522 
of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977. OSM 
has identified four alternatives that the combined PED/EIS would 
evaluate as described in the supplementary information of this notice. 
OSM requests that other Federal and state agencies and the public 
submit written comments or statements on the need for an EIS on the 
petition and the scope of the issues which should be analyzed in the 
combined document.

DATES: Written comments must be received by 5 p.m. (est), December 18, 
1995. Oral comments may be presented at the scoping meeting to be held 
on Thursday, November 16, 1995, at 7 p.m. (CST).

ADDRESSES: Written comments must be mailed or hand delivered to the 
Office 

[[Page 55816]]
of Surface Mining, Permitting Team, 530 Gay Street SW., Suite 500, 
Knoxville, Tennessee 37902, Attn. Willis Gainer. Copies of the petition 
are available upon request from the Office of Surface Mining at the 
above address. The public record on the petition is available for 
review during normal working hours (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) at the OSM 
office listed above. The November 16 scoping meeting will be held at 
the Fall Creek Falls State Park Inn, Rt. 3, Pikeville, Tennessee.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Willis L. Gainer, at the OSM office listed above (telephone: 615-545-
4065).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July 14, 1995, 49 citizens, Save Our 
Cumberland Mountains, and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning 
petitioned OSM to designate the watershed and viewshed of Fall Creek 
Falls State Park and Natural Area in Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties, 
Tennessee, as unsuitable for surface coal mining operations pursuant to 
SMCRA. The petition was amended on August 18 and September 5, 1995, and 
determined administratively complete and accepted for processing on 
October 5, 1995. The petition as accepted is an 80 page document with 
55 exhibits and amendments. The Federal Program for Tennessee, as 
administered by OSM, applies to all surface coal mining operations in 
Tennessee including the processing of lands unsuitable for mining 
petitions (49 FR 38874, October 1, 1984).
    The petition area covers approximately 83,740 acres of the 
watershed and viewshed in Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties. The petition 
boundary is as follows: beginning at the Park boundary due north of 
Bradden Knob lookout tower, roughly paralleling Highway 30 
northwesterly to a point on Cane Creek just south of the Highway 30 
crossing, then extending due west with the boundary of the Park's new 
addition and extending westward to a point approximately at the city 
limits of the town of Spencer, from that point southward roughly 
following the path of Highway 111 to Pine Grove school, then south-
southwest to the community of Welchland, then southeast to the peak of 
Smartt Mountain, then extending southeasterly following the Tennessee 
Valley Divide, and following the Divide as it curves back to the 
northeast to a point approximately 2 miles north of Basin Mountain, 
then following a divide between Flat Creek and Pole Bridge Creek in a 
northwesterly direction to the beginning.
    The major allegations of the petition can be summarized as follows:
    1. Surface coal mining operations would affect fragile or historic 
lands, in which such operations could result in significant damage to 
important historic, cultural, scientific, or esthetic values.
    2. Surface coal mining operations would affect renewable resource 
lands in which the operations could result in a substantial loss or 
reduction in the long-range productivity of water supply or of food or 
fiber products.
    3. Surface coal mining operations would affect natural hazard lands 
in which such operations could substantially endanger life and 
property.
    4. Surface coal mining operations would be incompatible with 
existing state and local land use plans or programs.
    5. Reclamation is not technologically and economically feasible.
    OSM has identified four possible alternatives that the combined 
PED/EIS would evaluate:
    Alternative 1--Designate the entire petition area as unsuitable for 
surface coal mining operations if OSM determines that reclamation is 
not technologically and economically feasible.
    Alternative 2--Not designate any of the area as unsuitable for 
surface coal mining operations.
    Alternative 3--Designate parts of the petition area as unsuitable 
for all surface coal mining operations:
    A. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal 
mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves, 
those parts of the petition area in which such operations would affect 
fragile or historic lands and result in significant damage to important 
historic, cultural, scientific, or esthetic values.
    B. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal 
mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves, 
those parts of the petition area in which such operations would result 
in a substantial loss or a reduction in the long-range productivity of 
water supply or food or fiber products.
    C. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal 
mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves, 
those parts of the petition area in which such operations would affect 
natural hazard lands and could substantially endanger life and 
property.
    D. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal 
mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves, 
those parts of the petition area in which such operations would be 
incompatible with existing local land use plans and programs.
    Alternative 4--Designate the entire petition area as unsuitable for 
surface coal mining but allow underground mining with or without 
certain restrictions.
    A scoping comment period is intended to raise the relevant issues 
to be addressed by the combined document. OSM seeks public comments in 
relation to the scope of issues to be addressed by the impact 
evaluation, including impacts and alternatives that should be 
addressed. Written comments should be specific and confined to issues 
pertinent to the petition. The public comments received during the 
scoping period will assist OSM in making decisions on the petition 
evaluation and in preparing the PED/EIS. OSM believes that the proposed 
action is a major Federal action that may significantly affect the 
quality of the human environment and may require the preparation of an 
EIS. OSM additionally gives notice here that should information or 
analysis show that the proposed action does not require an EIS, it will 
terminate the environmental impact statement process through an 
appropriate notice in the Federal Register, prepare an environmental 
assessment, and continue processing of the petition under 30 CFR Part 
764 and 942 regulations.

    Dated: October 31, 1995.
Mary Josie Blanchard,
Director, Program Support.
[FR Doc. 95-27338 Filed 11-2-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-05-M