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Notice of Availability of the Environmental Assessments, Determination of NEPA Adequacy, and Public Hearing for Coal Lease Application UTU-81893, Utah

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.

 [Federal Register: April 25, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 79)]
[Notices]
[Page 23943-23944]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25ap06-104]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[UT-920-1320-EL, UTU-81893]

Notice of Availability of the Environmental Assessments, 
Determination of NEPA Adequacy, and Public Hearing for Coal Lease 
Application UTU-81893, Utah

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Availability of the Kenilworth Tract Coal Lease By 
Application UTU-81893 and Federal Coal Notice of Public Hearing, and 
Request for Environmental Assessment, Determination of NEPA Adequacy, 
Maximum Economic Recovery and Fair Market Value Comments.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to 43 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) 3425.4, the 
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Utah State Office, held a public 
meeting on March 30, 2006 on the environmental assessment and 
Documentation of NEPA Adequacy (DNA), the proposed sale and requests 
public comment on the fair market value of the certain coal resources 
it proposes to offer for competitive lease sale. The EA/DNA analyzes 
and discloses direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impacts of 
issuing a Federal coal lease competitively for 1,760.00 acres in Carbon 
County, Utah. The purpose of the public hearing was 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.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 24, 2004 Andelex Resources, Inc. 
applied for a Federal coal lease. The Federal tract was assigned case 
number UTU-81893. The lands included in the delineated Federal coal 
lease tract (``Kenilworth'') are located approximately eight miles 
northeast of Helper, Utah on private lands with federally administered 
minerals and are described as follows:

T. 12 S., R. 10 E., SLM, Carbon County, Utah
    sec. 26, N\1/2\SW\1/4\, SE\1/4\SW\1/4\, SE\1/4\;
    sec. 27, S\1/2\;
    sec. 34, S\1/2\NE\1/4\, NW\1/4\NE\1/4\, NW\1/4\, S\1/2\.
    sec. 35, NE\1/4\, S\1/2\NW\1/4\, S\1/2\;

    Containing approximately 1,760.00 acres in Carbon County, Utah.
    The Kenilworth coal tract has one or more minable coal beds. The 
minable portions of the Castlegate A coal bed in this area are around 
six to twelve feet in thickness. The Castlegate A bed contains more 
than 16.3 million tons of recoverable high-volatile A bituminous coal. 
The Kenilworth coal bed may be recoverable but further analysis will be 
required though. The coal quality in the Castlegate A coal bed on an 
``as received basis'' is as follows: 13,060 Btu/lb., 2.92 percent 
moisture, 7.61 percent ash, 41.82 percent volatile matter, 47.83 
percent fixed carbon and 0.41 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 February 10, 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 
February 10, 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.

DATES: The public hearing was held at 7 p.m. on Thursday March 30, 2006 
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. If the public wishes to have an additional meeting on the 
subject, please submit a request in writing to the Utah State Director, 
Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office, Division of Lands and 
Minerals, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, Utah 84145.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Steve Rigby, Mining Engineer at 
the Price Field Office address above or by telephone at 435-636-3604. 
Written comments on the Fair Market Value and Maximum Economic Recovery 
should be addressed to James F. Kohler, and must be received by June 1, 
2006 , Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office, Division of Lands 
and Minerals, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, Utah 84145. 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

[[Page 23944]]

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.

    Dated: April 4, 2006.
James F. Kohler,
Acting Deputy State Director, Lands and Minerals.
[FR Doc. E6-6180 Filed 4-24-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-DK-P

 
 

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