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Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on Mountaintop Mining/Valley Fills in Appalachia - 2005
The Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on Mountaintop Mining/Valley Fills in Appalachia - EPA 9-03-R-05002 (PDF) (507 pp, 25.4 MB, About PDF) includes the following:
- Summary (PDF) (10 pp, 381K, About PDF)
- the comments received on the Draft PEIS (part of the Public Comment Compendium, Volumes I - III), issues identified in the comments, and responses on the issues
- errata sheets (PDF) (12 pp, 387K, About PDF), and
- new studies (PDF) (398 pp, 19.4MB, About PDF)
The Final PEIS incorporates by reference the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) published in June 2003. After considering all the comments received on the Draft PEIS and developing responses, the agencies determined that changes required to the Draft PEIS were minor. Therefore, the agencies implemented the provision of the Council on Environmental Quality regulations for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act at Section 1503.4(c), which reads:
(c) If changes in response to comments are minor and are confined to the responses described in paragraphs (a)(4) and (5) of this section, agencies may write them on errata sheets and attach them to the statement instead of rewriting the draft statement. In such cases only the comments, the responses, and the changes and not the final statement need be circulated (Sec. 1502.19). The entire document with a new cover sheet shall be filed as the final statement (Sec. 1506.9).
In accordance with this provision, the agencies have placed a Final PEIS cover sheet (PDF) (1 pg, 81K, About PDF) on the Draft PEIS and, along with the errata sheet and comments/responses, have filed it as the Final PEIS on mountaintop coal mining and associated valley fills in Appalachia.