Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 24, 2001 / Notices 20681

Authority: National Wildlife Refuge

Administration Act of 1966, as amended (16

U.S.C. 668dd–ee).

Dated: January 30, 2001.

Marshall P. Jones, Jr.,

Acting Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service.

[FR Doc. 01–10142 Filed 4–23–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[WY–060–1320–EL, WYW151133]

Federal Coal Lease Application,

Wyoming

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management,

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability of a final

Environmental Assessment on the Belle

Ayr 2000 Federal Coal Lease

Application in the decertified Powder

River Federal Coal Production Region,

Wyoming.

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and

implementing regulations and other

applicable statutes, the Bureau of Land

Management (BLM) announces the

availability of a Final Environmental

Assessment (EA) for the Belle Ayr 2000

Coal Lease Application, BLM serial

number WYW151133, in the Wyoming

Powder River Basin. The final EA is

being published in abbreviated format.

Reviewers will need the Draft

Environmental Assessment for the Belle

Ayr 2000 Coal Lease Application, BLM,

December, 2000, for review of the

complete EA. The EA analyzes the

impacts of issuing a Federal coal lease

for the proposed Belle Ayr 2000 Federal

coal tract. The Belle Ayr 2000 tract is

being considered for sale as a result of

a coal lease application received from

RAG Wyoming Land Company (RAG)

on July 28, 2000. The tract as applied for

includes about 243.61 acres containing

approximately 29 million tons of

recoverable Federal coal reserves in

Campbell County, Wyoming.

DATES: Written comments on the final

EA will be accepted through May 11,

2001.

ADDRESSES: Please address questions,

comments or requests for copies of the

EA to the Casper Field Office, Bureau of

Land Management, Attn: Nancy Doelger,

2987 Prospector Drive, Casper,

Wyoming 82601; or you may e-mail

them to the attention of Nancy Doelger

at casper_wymail@blm.gov; or fax them

to 307–261–7587.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Nancy Doelger or Mike Karbs at the

above address, or phone 307–261–7600.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

application for the Belle Ayr 2000 tract

was filed as a maintenance tract coal

lease-by-application (LBA) under the

provisions of 43 CFR 3425.1

On July 28, 2000, RAG filed coal lease

application WYW151133 for the Belle

Ayr 2000 Federal coal tract with the

BLM for the following lands:

T. 48 N., R. 71W., 6th P.M., Campbell

County, Wyoming

Section 28: Lots 3 through 6;

Section 29: Lots 1 and 6.

Total surface area applied for: 243.61

acres.

RAG had previously applied for a

maintenance LBA that encompassed the

coal resources included in the Belle Ayr

2000 lease application as well as

additional coal resources northwest of

the Belle Ayr 2000 lease application

area on March 20, 1997. They filed a

request to modify the 1997 Belle Ayr

LBA by withdrawing the lands included

in the Belle Ayr 2000 application on

July 28, 2000. RAG then filed a separate

lease application for the lands

withdrawn from the original LBA and

included in Belle Ayr 2000 Tract.

The Powder River Regional Coal

Team reviewed the request to modify

the Belle Ayr 1997 LBA application and

the application for the Belle Ayr 2000

LBA at their public meeting on October

25, 2000, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and

recommended that BLM process it.

The draft EA was released to the

public in early January 2001. The

comment period on the draft EA ended

in early February 2001. A public hearing

was held at 7 p.m., MDT, on January 18,

2001, at the Clarion Western Plaza

Motel, 2009 S. Douglas Highway,

Gillette, Wyoming. The purpose of the

hearing was to solicit public comments

on the Draft EA, the fair market value,

the maximum economic recovery, and

the proposed competitive sale of the

coal included in the proposed Belle Ayr

2000 Federal coal tract. Three written

comment letters were received on the

draft EA. They are included, with

responses, in the final EA.

The Belle Ayr Mine, which is adjacent

to the lease application area, has an

approved mining and reclamation plan

from the Land Quality Division of the

Wyoming Department of Environmental

Quality and an approved air quality

permit from the Air Quality Division of

the Wyoming Department of

Environmental Quality to mine up to 45

million tons of coal per year. According

to the application filed for the Belle Ayr

2000 tract, the maintenance tract would

be mined to maintain production at the

existing Belle Ayr Mine. The tract is

also contiguous to an existing lease at

the Caballo Mine.

The Belle Ayr 2000 tract is bounded

on three sides by existing coal leases at

the Belle Ayr and Caballo Mines. Under

the approved mining plans for these two

mines, a large portion of the tract will

be disturbed when the adjacent leases

are mined in order to recover all of the

coal in those leases.

The EA analyzes two alternatives. The

Proposed Action is to issue a

maintenance lease for the Belle Ayr

2000 tract as applied for to the

successful bidder at a competitive

sealed bid sale. The second alternative,

Alternative 1, is the No Action

Alternative, which assumes that the

application for the Belle Ayr 2000 tract

is rejected.

The Office of Surface Mining

Reclamation and Enforcement is a

cooperating agency in the preparation of

this EA because it is the Federal agency

that would recommend approval or

disapproval of the Mineral Leasing Act

(MLA) mining plan for the Belle Ayr

2000 LBA tract to the Secretary of the

Interior, if a lease is issued for the tract.

Comments, including names and

street addresses of respondents, will be

available for public review at the BLM

Casper Field Office, 2987 Prospector

Drive, Casper, Wyoming, during regular

business hours (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.),

Monday through Friday, except

holidays. Individual respondents may

request confidentiality. If you wish to

withhold your name or street address

from public review or from disclosure

under the Freedom of Information Act,

you must state this prominently at the

beginning of your written comment.

Such requests will be honored to the

extent allowed by law. All submissions

from organizations or businesses, and

from individuals identifying themselves

as representatives of officials of

organizations or businesses, will be

made available for public inspection in

their entirety.

Dated: April 5, 2001.

Alan Rabinoff,

Deputy State Director, Minerals and Lands.

[FR Doc. 01–10052 Filed 4–23–01; 8:45 am]

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