About the Project

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are seeking public comments on the environmental assessment (EA) that analyzes potential impacts from leasing 320-acres of Federal coal to Coyote Creek Mining Company adjacent to its existing Coyote Creek Mine in Township 143 North, Range 89 West of the 5th P.M., Mercer County, North Dakota. OSMRE and BLM have jointly prepared an EA that will allow each agency to issue its own findings regarding the significance of potential impacts resulting from leasing and mining Federal coal.

OSMRE and BLM are publishing a Notice of Availability of the EA and unsigned Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for a 30-day public comment period. The purpose of the public comment process is to obtain feedback on the environmental analysis the agencies have conducted for the proposed lease and mining plan at the Coyote Creek Mine.

Comments will be accepted through June 8, 2020. BLM and OSMRE will also hold a public hearing to receive comments on the EA, Fair Market Value (FMV), and Maximum Economic Recovery (MER) of the coal resources contained in the proposed CCMC LBA lease tracts. The public hearing by teleconference will be held by calling 1-800-369-1853 and entering passcode 3787572 when prompted. The public hearing will be held on May 20, 2020, at 3:00 p.m (Central time zone) and will conclude at 5:00 p.m. (Central time zone). Please note that any details and updates made to any aspect of the hearing will be posted on the eplanning webpage (https://go.usa.gov/xVyfF). While the BLM expects the hearing to go forward as set forth above, please monitor the eplanning website or contact the agency staff listed below.

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  The EA has been prepared by both agencies at this time for each of their respective future decisions. In accordance with their North Dakota Resource Management plan, the BLM will decide to either hold a lease sale or not, and if the sale is held, the BLM will decide to approve the lease or not. If the LBA Tracts are approved and issued, OSMRE will review the proposed mining plan to mine the leased Federal coal and provide the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management (ASLM) a recommendation to approve, approve with conditions or disapprove the mining plan. The ASLM will decide to approve, approve with conditions or disapprove the mining plan.

  The EA analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the No Action and Proposed Action alternatives. If a finding of no significant impact is reached, and pursuant to 30 CFR 746.13, OSMRE will prepare and submit to the ASLM a mining plan decision document recommending approval, disapproval, or conditional approval of the mining plan. The ASLM will approve, disapprove, or conditionally approve the mining plan approval document within the mining plan decision document, as required under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.

Document Review

The EA and unsigned FONSI are available for review online below by clicking on the arrow next to the “Documents” header.

Hard copies of the EA and unsigned FONSIs will be available for public review at the BLM North Dakota Field Office at 99 23rd Avenue West, Suite A, Dickinson, ND 58601.

• Documents

  • Title	Size	Type
    Environmental Assessment (Dated 05/06/2020)	(8.70 MB)
    Unsigned Finding of No Significant Impact (Dated 05/06/2020)	(246 KB)

Contact

For more details on the EA and unsigned FONSI, how to comment, and pertinent contact information, go to the BLM ePlanning website at https://eplanning.blm.gov and conduct a “Text Search” for the project NEPA number DOI-BLM-MT-0000-2018-0006-EA.

Those who intend to provide comments are advised that including an address, phone number, email address or other personal-identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. While those commenting can ask in their comments to have personal-identifying information withheld from public review, the agencies cannot guarantee that they will be able to do so. All submissions from organizations, from businesses and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives of organizations or businesses, will be available for public review.

For more information contact Michelle Fishburne at (202) 208-2982.

All media inquires should be directed to:

Chris Holmes
Public Affairs Specialist
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
U.S. Department of the Interior
cholmes@osmre.gov
Telephone: (202)208-7941