BLACK MESA PROJECT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) is the lead Federal agency for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analyzing the effects of the Black Mesa Project.

 

On November 7, 2008, OSMRE and the U.S. Environmental Protection agency separately announced in the Federal Register availability of the final EIS for the Black Mesa Project.

The proposed project consists of minor modifications of the mining and reclamation plans for Peabody Western Coal Company’s Kayenta Mine at the Black Mesa Complex, which supplies 8.5 million tons of coal per year to the Navajo Generating Station at Page, Arizona, and incorporation of the surface facilities and coal reserves of the adjacent Black Mesa Mine, which previously supplied coal to the Mohave Generating Station at Laughlin, Nevada, into the Kayenta mine permit.

If the project is approved as proposed, the existing facilities and unmined coal reserves within the area where the Black Mesa Mine previously operated would be added to the permit for the Kayenta Mine. In addition, water consumption at the Complex would be reduced from previous levels to an average of 1,236 acre-feet of Navajo aquifer water per year for mining-related and domestic purposes. When the coal-slurry operations were supplying coal to the Mohave Generating Station, about 4,400 acre-feet of Navajo aquifer water were being used each year.

Issuance of the final EIS completes a National Environmental Policy Act process that started 4 years ago. Largely because of concerns about proposed use of ground water for mining and associated operations, OSM received over 18,000 comments on the draft EIS that it issued in November 2006.

The Black Mesa Project, as originally proposed in early 2004 and analyzed in the draft EIS, included those operations associated with supplying coal to both the Navajo Generating Station and the Mohave Generating Station. The operations proposed for supplying coal to the Mohave Generating Station, which had suspended operation in December 2005, included resumption of operations of an existing coal slurry preparation plant at the Black Mesa Mine Complex; reconstruction of an existing 273-mile long coal-slurry pipeline from the coal slurry preparation plant to the Mohave Generating Station; and construction of a new water-supply system and a new 108-mile long water-supply pipeline from a new well field in the Coconino aquifer near Leupp, Arizona, to the mine complex.

Following issuance of the draft EIS, the owners of the Mohave Generating Station suspended attempts to reopen the power plant. Subsequently, Peabody amended its OSM permit application by removing the proposed operations associated with supplying coal to the power plant - specifically, production of 6.35 million tons of coal to feed the power plant, construction of a coal wash plant and coal waste disposal site, construction of a new coal haul road and pumping Navajo aquifer water up to an average of 2,000 acre-feet per year for the coal slurry operation whenever the proposed new Coconino aquifer water-supply system was inoperable for whatever reason.

Restart of work on EIS

OSM restarting work on the final EIS again after a 1-year delay.

On May 18, 2007, OSMRE suspended work on the final EIS when Southern California Edison terminated funding of the EIS because it had not found new owners for the Mohave Generating Station who would restart the power plant. The power plant has not operated since December 2005.

The Mohave Generating Station itself has never been a part of the proposed Black Mesa Project, but several components of the proposed project as it existed prior to May 18, 2007, were dependent upon the power plant for their existence – the Black Mesa Mine, the coal slurry preparation plant, the coal-slurry pipeline, and proposed Coconino water-supply system.

Peabody Western Coal Company, the sole supplier of coal to the Mohave Generating Station, notified OSMRE that the chances are remote of the power plant ever reopening. Therefore, the chances are also unlikely that the Black Mesa Mine will resume coal production to feed the power plant, the existing coal slurry preparation plant will be permitted, the coal-slurry pipeline will be rebuilt, and the new Coconino water-supply system will be built.