The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Calls for NEPA review
The High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA) is one of three conservation groups that filed a lawsuit and a request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in an effort to prevent a coal company from developing mining activity next to the West Elk Wilderness Area in the North Fork Valley.
HCCA and conservationist groups WildEarth Guardians represented by Earthjustice filed the complaint July 2. They filed the request for a TRO on Friday, July 5 and there will be a hearing on that request Thursday, July 11 in Denver.
“It’s critical to get the TRO,” said HCCA public lands director Alli Melton. “One of the big things with these types of issues is that the company can start work during the hearings and then the damage is done. If we want to keep that area roadless and pristine, it’s imperative to get the restraining order. Otherwise they can start bulldozing and bringing down trees and building roads.”
According to a press release from the groups, the organizations are challenging the federal government’s approval of Arch Coal’s plans to affect “1,700 acres of the pristine Sunset Roadless Area next to Colorado’s iconic West Elk Wilderness, an American wilderness gem.”
Earthjustice, on behalf of HCCA and WildEarth Guardians, filed the original suit in federal court last week to overturn Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service decisions authorizing massive new coal development in the Sunset Roadless Area. The Roadless Area is in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, Gunnison National Forest of western Colorado and is adjacent to the West Elk Wilderness.
“Destroying the Sunset Roadless Area for dirty energy development is beyond short-sighted,” said Melton. “Colorado’s mountain backcountry is irreplaceable, it shouldn’t be sacrificed to appease the coal industry. I was in that area a few weeks ago and the feeling in the roadless area is so much nicer than where mining activity is evident.”
Melton said the coal company is hoping to begin the early stages of exploring the coal seams that would affect the roadless area. But it is during these early stages that a lot of damage can be done to the environment.
According to the court document requesting the TRO, HCCA claims that Arch Coal will immediately “begin bulldozing 2.8 miles of road up to 45 feet wide and constructing four half-acre drilling pads within the roadless area to explore for coal. This construction will require toppling scores of 100-foot-tall aspen trees, and the leveling of rough and hilly terrain, which will degrade the scenic beauty, wildlife habitat, and current natural, undeveloped nature of this roadless area that Plaintiffs and their members enjoy. This harm will be irreparable…”
The groups contend that the area slated to be roaded and drilled by Arch Coal provides habitat for the threatened lynx, supports the Sunset Trail, a backcountry hiking and horseback trail, and provides a valuable linkage between the West Elk Wilderness Area and lowland forests along the North Fork of the Gunnison River.
The decisions approved the leasing of new coal beneath the Roadless Area to Arch Coal and most recently approved a plan by Arch to conduct coal exploration in this same area as early as this week. The temporary restraining order would prevent Arch Coal from conducting its exploration, which would entail punching more than six miles of new roads and carving out 30 acres to construct drilling pads in untouched National Forest land, according to the press release.
Although the West Elk mine is underground the coal seams are some of the gassiest in the nation. Because of this, Arch has to drill natural gas wells above the coal seams to vent methane gas. The company’s plans in the Sunset Trail area call for 48 well pads, which will simply vent the gas into the air. Melton said the feds don’t require the methane to be captured. “That’s a lot of methane just being released into the atmosphere. It seems crazy on a number of levels. It’s not healthy and it’s wasting money as some companies are figuring out how to capture and sell the methane,” stated Melton.
The groups’ lawsuit challenges the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service on a number of grounds, including that the agencies failed to analyze and assess air pollution impacts and impacts to the Sunset Roadless Area. The suit also challenges the validity of the Colorado Roadless Rule, which exempted roadless areas in the North Fork Valley of Colorado from protection.
“Granted, there is a convenient carve-out for the coal industry in the Colorado roadless rules,” said Melton. “The rule doesn’t simply protect existing leases. It specifically provides a carve-out exempting later coal leases in the North Fork coal mining area. That doesn’t make a lot of sense when we have a rule that’s supposed to protect our roadless areas.”
According to the joint press release, “The Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service decisions authorized the leasing of 10.1 million tons of coal under 1,700 acres of the Sunset Roadless Area, which would expand Arch’s West Elk Coal Mine. At current production rates, the leasing would keep the West Elk Coal Mine operating for about (an additional) three years. Without the leases, the mine would still continue to operate for about 13 years or more.”
The environmental groups are asking the Forest Service to have the project come into full NEPA compliance. “We want a legitimate opportunity for public comment before a decision is made. That’s a concern,” said Melton. “We did offer alternatives that proposed smaller environmental impacts. It doesn’t appear those were discussed at all. It seems there was an all or nothing choice.”
Calls and email to Arch Coal’s external affairs office on Monday were not returned.
