[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 151 (Thursday, August 6, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42059-42061]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-21013]


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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.

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

[[Page 42060]]

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, filed an 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.

[[Page 42061]]

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. 98-21013 Filed 8-5-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-22-P