p.1 

OAR Box 1837 

Prepped by Keeia Richards 

Document Number: 

174) IV-E-8 

Docket Number: 

A-84-33 

Printed 11/14/2008 3:48:11 PM Sheet 174 of 238 
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| ^SK Z ? UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

^PPO ^ WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 

April 14, 1987 

OPFIC E O F 

GENERA L COUNSEL 

MEMORANDUM 

SUBJECT: Meeting with Industr y Representative s 

FROM: 

TO; 

Gregory B. Foote ^ 

Attorney 

Office of General Counsel 

Central Docket Section (LE-131) 

Docket No. A-84-33 

On April 7, 1986, representatives of EPA met with 

representatives of the American Mining Congress (AMC) to 

discuss the above-referenced rulemaking proposal. A list 

of the attendees at the meeting is attached. . Industry 

representatives furnished the following documents to the EPA 

participants: 

(1) "Position of the American Minining Congress on 

EPA Proposal to List Surface Coal Mines 

'Significantly' Impacting Class I Areas as PSD 

Sources" (April 7, 1986). 

(2) "Briefing Documents on Mining Industry Concerns 

with Proposal to List Surface Coal Mines 

'Significantly* Impacting Class I Areas as PSD 

Sources" (undated briefing book). 

(3) Maps of Wyoming and Montana coal-bearing areas. 

Copies of these documents and the list of meeting 

participants are attached for inclusion in Docket No. A-84-33. 

At the meeting, industry representatives urged EPA to 

reject Alternative IV under the Strip Mines rulemaking proposal 

(listing of coal mines impacting Class I and mandatory Class 

II areas), and instead adopt Alternative IV (no listing), 

citing the arguments•stated in AMC's position paper. in 

particular, they stressed the following: 

• EPA is not legally bound to list strip mines. 

Strip mines are already subject to emissions 

controls under SIP requirements. 

. ,>v> • I 
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Listing would not engender visibility improvement 

or other environmental benefits. 

Regulation is unnecessary because the Department 

of the Interior (DOI) has ample statutory 

authority to protect Class I areas where 

appropriate. 

° Listing would create a huge "buffer zone" 

surrounding Class I areas, in which no strip 

mines would be allowed despite a lack 

of adverse impacts on air quality; a 

total of $8.6 billion tons of coal would be 

put off-limits to development. 

EPA representatives indicated a tentative agreement that 

DOI possesses extensive potential authority to regulate strip 

mining which would adversely impact areas of concern, but 

also stated that the extent of DOI's exercise of its authority 

was uncertain due to the discretion vested by the statutes, 

the lack of judicial guidance in their implementation, and 

the current downturn in new stripmining ventures. EPA representatives also stressed that the central intent of Alternative 

IV was to focus the regulatory program on areas of special 

concern to Congress and the public, where the potential for 

adverse air quality impacts was greatest, and that EPA might 

consider (in the final rulemaking) modifying Alternative IV 

as originally proposed in order to better meet that central 

purpose. 

Attachment 

cc: Barbara Brown, OAR 

Kirt Cox, OAQPS