[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 104 (Wednesday, May 31, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30952-30953]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-5005]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[UT-920-1320-EL, UTU-84285]


Notice of Availability of the Environmental Assessment, 
Determination of NEPA Adequacy, and Public Hearing for Coal Lease 
Application UTU-84285, Utah

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability of the Mill Fork West Tract Coal Lease 
by Application UTU-84285 and Federal Coal Notice of Public Hearing, and 
Request for Environmental Assessment, Determination of NEPA Adequacy, 
Maximum Economic Recovery and Fair Market Value Comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Pursuant to 43 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) 3425.4, the 
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Utah State Office, hereby gives notice 
that Environmental Assessments (EA) and Documentation of NEPA Adequacy 
(DNA) are available and a public hearing will be held to lease Federal 
coal. The EA/DNA analyzes and discloses direct, indirect, and 
cumulative environmental impacts of issuing a Federal coal lease 
competitively for 213.57 acres in Emery County, Utah. The purpose of 
the public hearing is to solicit comments from the public on (1) the 
proposal to issue a Federal coal lease; (2) the proposed competitive 
lease sale; (3) the Fair Market Value (FMV) of the Federal coal; and 
(4) Maximum Economic Recovery (MER) of the Federal coal included in the 
tract.

DATES: Written comment will be accepted until June 15, 2006. The public 
hearing will be held at 7 p.m on Thursday June 1, 2006.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be addressed to Stan Perkes, 801-
539-4036, Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office, Division of 
Lands and Minerals, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, Utah 84145. The 
public hearing will be held in the Price Field Office, 125 South 600 
West, Price, Utah 84501 where copies of the EA/DNA are available for 
inspection or copies provided upon request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Steve Rigby, Mining Engineer at 
the Price Field Office address above or by telephone at 435-636-3604.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 25, 2006 PacifiCorp applied for a 
Federal coal lease. The Federal tract was assigned case number UTU-
84285. The lands included in the delineated Federal coal lease tract 
(``Mill Fork West'') are located approximately fourteen miles northwest 
of Huntington, Utah on Forest Service surface lands with federally 
administered minerals and are described as follows:

T. 16 S., R. 6 E., SLM, Emery County, Utah
    Sec. 10, S\1/2\NE\1/4\NE\1/4\, SE\1/4\NE\1/4\, W\1/2\E\1/2\SE\1/
4\;
    Sec. 15, E\1/2\W\1/2\E\1/2\;
    Sec. 22, lot 3.

    Containing approximately 213.57 acres in Emery County, Utah.
    The Mill Fork West coal tract has two minable coal beds. The 
minable portions of the Hiawatha coal bed and the Blind Canyon coal bed 
in this area are around eleven feet in thickness. The Hiawatha and 
Blind Canyon beds contains around 400 thousand tons of recoverable 
high-volatile A to B bituminous coal. The coal quality in the Hiawatha 
coal bed on an ``as received basis'' is as follows: 12,892 Btu/lb., 
4.54

[[Page 30953]]

percent moisture, 7.69 percent ash, 42.46 percent volatile matter, 
45.48 percent fixed carbon and 0.57 percent sulfur. The coal quality in 
the Blind Canyon coal bed on an ``as received basis'' is as follows: 
13,314 Btu/lb., 5.26 percent moisture, 4.68 percent ash, 44.18 percent 
volatile matter, 45.88 percent fixed carbon and 0.61 percent sulfur.
    BLM requests public comment on the fair market value and 
environmental effects of this tract. The BLM signed a Decision Notice/ 
Finding of No Significant Impact dated May 15, 2006 that discusses the 
environmental effects of mining this tract. The Notice of Decision was 
posted in the Price Field Office and the Utah State Office on May 15, 
2006. Comments should address, but not necessarily be limited to the 
following information.
    1. The quality of the coal resource;
    2. The mining methods or methods which would achieve maximum 
economic recovery of the coal, including specifications of seams to be 
mined and the most desirable timing and rate of production;
    3. Whether this tract is likely to be mined as part of an existing 
mine and therefore should be evaluated on a realistic incremental 
basis, in relation to the existing mine to which it has the greatest 
value;
    4. Whether the tract should be evaluated as part of a potential 
larger mining unit and revaluated as a portion of a new potential mine 
(i.e., a tract which does not in itself form a logical mining unit);
    5. Restrictions to mining that may affect coal recovery;
    6. The price that the mined coal would bring when sold;
    7. Costs, including mining and reclamation, of producing the coal 
and the time of production;
    8. The percentage rate at which anticipated income streams should 
be discounted, either with inflation or in the absence of inflation, in 
which case the anticipated rate of inflation should be given;
    9. Depreciation, depletion, amortization and other tax accounting 
factors;
    10. The value of any surface estate where held privately;
    11. Documented information on the terms and conditions of recent 
and similar coal land transactions in the lease sale area;
    12. Any comparable sales data of similar coal lands; and coal 
quantities and the FMV of the coal developed by BLM may or may not 
change as a result of comments received from the public and changes in 
the market conditions between now and when final economic evaluations 
are completed.
    In accordance with Federal coal management regulations 43 CFR parts 
3422 and 3425, the public meeting is being held on the proposed sale to 
allow public comment on and discussion of the potential effects of 
mining and proposed lease. The meeting is being advertised in the Emery 
County Progress located in Castledale, Utah. 43 CFR part 3422 states 
that, no less than 30 days prior to the publication of the notice of 
the sale, the Secretary shall submit public comments on the FMV 
appraisal and the MER, and on factors that may affect these two 
determinations. As provided in 43 CFR 3422.1(a), proprietary data 
marked as confidential may be submitted to the Bureau of Land 
Management in response to this solicitation of public comments. Data so 
marked shall be treated in accordance with the laws and regulations 
governing confidentiality of such information. A copy of the comments 
submitted by the public on FMV and MER, except those portions 
identified as proprietary by the author and meeting exemptions stated 
in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), will be available for public 
inspection at the BLM, Utah State Office during the regular business 
hours (7:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) Monday through Friday. If you wish to 
withhold your name or address from public review or from disclosure 
under the FOIA you must state this prominently at the beginning of your 
written comments. Such requests will be honored to the extent allowed 
by the FOIA. All submissions from organizations, businesses and 
individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of 
organizations or businesses will be available for public inspection in 
its entirety. Substantive comments, whether written or oral, will 
receive equal consideration prior to any lease offering. A copy of the 
EA/DNA, the case file, and the comments submitted by the public, except 
those portions identified as proprietary by the commenter and meeting 
exemptions stated in the FOIA, will be available for public inspection 
after at the Utah State Office, 440 West 200 South, Suite 500, Salt 
Lake City, Utah 84145.

Kent Hoffman,
Deputy State Director, Lands and Minerals.
[FR Doc. 06-5005 Filed 5-30-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-DK-P