[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