Receipt of a Petition To Designate Lands Unsuitable for Mining and To Prepare a Petition Evaluation Document and Environmental Impact Statement

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

30 CFR Parts 764 and 942

Receipt of a Petition To Designate Lands Unsuitable for Mining

and To Prepare a Petition Evaluation Document and Environmental Impact

Statement

AGENCY: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a combined petition evaluation

document/environmental impact statement, and notice of scoping meeting

and scoping comment period for the petition.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Office of Surface Mining

Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) intends to prepare a combined

petition evaluation document/environmental impact statement (PED/EIS)

for the decision on a petition to designate certain lands within the

watershed and viewshed of Fall Creek Falls State Park and Natural Area

in Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties, Tennessee, as unsuitable for surface

coal mining and reclamation operations in accordance with Section 522

of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977. OSM

has identified four alternatives that the combined PED/EIS would

evaluate as described in the supplementary information of this notice.

OSM requests that other Federal and state agencies and the public

submit written comments or statements on the need for an EIS on the

petition and the scope of the issues which should be analyzed in the

combined document.

DATES: Written comments must be received by 5 p.m. (est), December 18,

1995. Oral comments may be presented at the scoping meeting to be held

on Thursday, November 16, 1995, at 7 p.m. (CST).

ADDRESSES: Written comments must be mailed or hand delivered to the

Office

[[Page 55816]]

of Surface Mining, Permitting Team, 530 Gay Street SW., Suite 500,

Knoxville, Tennessee 37902, Attn. Willis Gainer. Copies of the petition

are available upon request from the Office of Surface Mining at the

above address. The public record on the petition is available for

review during normal working hours (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) at the OSM

office listed above. The November 16 scoping meeting will be held at

the Fall Creek Falls State Park Inn, Rt. 3, Pikeville, Tennessee.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Willis L. Gainer, at the OSM office listed above (telephone: 615-545-

4065).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July 14, 1995, 49 citizens, Save Our

Cumberland Mountains, and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning

petitioned OSM to designate the watershed and viewshed of Fall Creek

Falls State Park and Natural Area in Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties,

Tennessee, as unsuitable for surface coal mining operations pursuant to

SMCRA. The petition was amended on August 18 and September 5, 1995, and

determined administratively complete and accepted for processing on

October 5, 1995. The petition as accepted is an 80 page document with

55 exhibits and amendments. The Federal Program for Tennessee, as

administered by OSM, applies to all surface coal mining operations in

Tennessee including the processing of lands unsuitable for mining

petitions (49 FR 38874, October 1, 1984).

The petition area covers approximately 83,740 acres of the

watershed and viewshed in Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties. The petition

boundary is as follows: beginning at the Park boundary due north of

Bradden Knob lookout tower, roughly paralleling Highway 30

northwesterly to a point on Cane Creek just south of the Highway 30

crossing, then extending due west with the boundary of the Park's new

addition and extending westward to a point approximately at the city

limits of the town of Spencer, from that point southward roughly

following the path of Highway 111 to Pine Grove school, then south-

southwest to the community of Welchland, then southeast to the peak of

Smartt Mountain, then extending southeasterly following the Tennessee

Valley Divide, and following the Divide as it curves back to the

northeast to a point approximately 2 miles north of Basin Mountain,

then following a divide between Flat Creek and Pole Bridge Creek in a

northwesterly direction to the beginning.

The major allegations of the petition can be summarized as follows:

1. Surface coal mining operations would affect fragile or historic

lands, in which such operations could result in significant damage to

important historic, cultural, scientific, or esthetic values.

2. Surface coal mining operations would affect renewable resource

lands in which the operations could result in a substantial loss or

reduction in the long-range productivity of water supply or of food or

fiber products.

3. Surface coal mining operations would affect natural hazard lands

in which such operations could substantially endanger life and

property.

4. Surface coal mining operations would be incompatible with

existing state and local land use plans or programs.

5. Reclamation is not technologically and economically feasible.

OSM has identified four possible alternatives that the combined

PED/EIS would evaluate:

Alternative 1--Designate the entire petition area as unsuitable for

surface coal mining operations if OSM determines that reclamation is

not technologically and economically feasible.

Alternative 2--Not designate any of the area as unsuitable for

surface coal mining operations.

Alternative 3--Designate parts of the petition area as unsuitable

for all surface coal mining operations:

A. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal

mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves,

those parts of the petition area in which such operations would affect

fragile or historic lands and result in significant damage to important

historic, cultural, scientific, or esthetic values.

B. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal

mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves,

those parts of the petition area in which such operations would result

in a substantial loss or a reduction in the long-range productivity of

water supply or food or fiber products.

C. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal

mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves,

those parts of the petition area in which such operations would affect

natural hazard lands and could substantially endanger life and

property.

D. Designate as unsuitable for all or certain types of surface coal

mining operations, including the designation of selected reserves,

those parts of the petition area in which such operations would be

incompatible with existing local land use plans and programs.

Alternative 4--Designate the entire petition area as unsuitable for

surface coal mining but allow underground mining with or without

certain restrictions.

A scoping comment period is intended to raise the relevant issues

to be addressed by the combined document. OSM seeks public comments in

relation to the scope of issues to be addressed by the impact

evaluation, including impacts and alternatives that should be

addressed. Written comments should be specific and confined to issues

pertinent to the petition. The public comments received during the

scoping period will assist OSM in making decisions on the petition

evaluation and in preparing the PED/EIS. OSM believes that the proposed

action is a major Federal action that may significantly affect the

quality of the human environment and may require the preparation of an

EIS. OSM additionally gives notice here that should information or

analysis show that the proposed action does not require an EIS, it will

terminate the environmental impact statement process through an

appropriate notice in the Federal Register, prepare an environmental

assessment, and continue processing of the petition under 30 CFR Part

764 and 942 regulations.

Dated: October 31, 1995.

Mary Josie Blanchard,

Director, Program Support.

[FR Doc. 95-27338 Filed 11-2-95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-05-M