The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Analysis assumes exception to Colorado Roadless Rule will be upheld
By Alissa Johnson
The U.S. Forest Service announced this week that it is preparing a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) considering two coal lease modifications adjacent to the West Elk Mine. A federal judge vacated the modifications in 2012, and the USFS is seeking to address deficiencies identified by the judge, even as it does the same for an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule that would allow mining exploration in the area.
The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests and Bureau of Land Management filed a notice of intent to complete the draft EIS on February 23. Because the lease modifications are being re-evaluated in accordance with the judicial decision, they are exempt from a recent Obama administration moratorium on new coal mine leases on federal lands.
According to Anne Janik, USFS public affairs specialist, comments are being accepted while the supplemental EIS is being prepared. A formal comment period will be held after a draft of the document is released, expected this spring.
The process is being initiated even as the agency works to complete a draft EIS for an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule that would reinstate the North Fork Coal Mining Area to coal exploration, including the temporary construction of roads and other coal mining-related surface activities within the 19,000-acre area.
The final EIS for the Colorado Roadless Rule exception is expected this summer and will be followed by an objection period. Gunnison County has formally supported reinstating the exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule while the town of Crested Butte opposed it. In order for the lease modifications to move forward, the exception would need to be upheld.
“The whole premise of [the lease modification] analysis would fall on whether the North Folk Coal Mining Area exemption would be valid, so we are doing this analysis with the assumption that the exemption will indeed be accepted,” Janik said.
If the lease modifications go through, 1,700 acres within the Sunset Roadless Area would be leased to the West Elk Mine, which would be in the North Fork Coal Area.
Matt Reed, public lands director for High Country Conservation Advocates, commented on the announcement. “[It] shows that the Forest Service continues to push ahead to bail out a bankrupt coal company while degrading roadless areas and damaging the climate,” Reed said.
“It shows the clear direction the agency is moving and the fact that they’re trying to ram this lease modification through even before completion of the Colorado Roadless Rule loophole process,” he added.
Comments on the lease modifications may be submitted to the Forest Service by mail: Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, Attn: Forest Supervisor, 2250 Hwy. 50, Delta, CO 81416; by email: https://cara.ecosystemmanagement.org/Public//CommentInput?Project=32459; or by fax: 970-874-6698.
