Salome Marble Quarry Competitive Mineral Material Sale ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
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U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Salome Marble Quarry Competitive Mineral Material Sale ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT DOI-BLM-AZ-C030-2020-0088-EA U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Colorado River District Lake Havasu Field Office 1785 Kiowa Ave. Lake Havasu City, AZ 86406 (928) 505-1200 January 2021 Confidentiality Policy Any comments, including names and street addresses of respondents, you submit may be made available for public review. 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 or officials of organizations or businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their entirety. DOI-BLM-AZ-C030-2020-0088-EA It is the mission of the Bureau of Land Management to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. Compliance for Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act The contents of this document, when accessed electronically, may not be fully Section 508 Compliant with all software applications and readers. Please contact the Lake Havasu Field Office for assistance. We will try to assist you as best we can. This may require providing the information to you in a text only format. Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Location of Proposed Action: ................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Preparing Office: ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1.3 Applicant Name: ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Purpose and Need for Action ........................................................................................... 1 1.3 Decision to be Made ......................................................................................................... 1 1.4 Conformance with Applicable Land Use Plans ............................................................... 2 1.5 Relationship to Statutes, Regulations, Other Plans and Environmental Analysis Documents 2 CHAPTER 2 PROPOSED ACTION AND ALTERNATIVES ..................................................... 2 2.1 No Action Alternative ........................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Proposed Action .................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 3 AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES .. 3 3.1 Scoping and Issue Identification ...................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 4 CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION .......................................................... 6 CHAPTER 5 LIST OF PREPARERS ............................................................................................ 8 Page i CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background There is an existing stone quarry along Hovater Road near Salome, Arizona, which hosts a Proterozoic banded marble that outcrops throughout the Little Harquahala Mountains. The site has been mined over two decades, and the earliest mineral material contract on record is from April 2003 for 100,000 tons of crushed, decorative rock issued to Evan and Stacey White. A subsequent contract for 50,000 tons was issued to the same operators in July 2009. Over the life of these two contracts, approximately 8 acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Lake Havasu Field Office (LHFO) was excavated and mined to produce the existing footprint of the quarry seen at the site today. The site has sat idle with some leftover equipment (scale and water tank) and stockpiles since 2015 when the contract expired. No new mining has taken place since then. In 2019, a contract for the removal of the remaining stockpiles of 1-2-inch crushed marble and fines was issued to Glenn Webster, the current operator. Mr. Webster has submitted a request to crush new material from this site in order to provide for the growing demand of construction in the area. 1.1.1 Location of Proposed Action: The Salome marble quarry is situated in the Little Harquahala Mountains in southcentral Arizona within the Basin and Range physiographic province (refer to maps 1 and 2 in Appendix C). The existing quarry footprint and proposed expansion area encompasses approximately 15 acres within T. 4 N., R. 13 W., Section 28, Gila & Salt River Meridian. The site is approximately eight miles south of Salome Arizona, and 8 miles north of Interstate 10. Hovater Road connects the town of Salome and Interstate 10 to the quarry site. The nearest major city to the Project is Phoenix Arizona, which is approximately 85 miles east. 1.1.2 Preparing Office: BLM, Colorado River District, LHFO 1.1.3 Applicant Name: Glenn Webster 1.2 Purpose and Need for Action The purpose of the BLM action is to respond to Glenn Webster’s request for mineral material disposal at the Salome Marble Quarry and expand the current pit boundaries to allow for expansion to meet local demands for marble used to make concrete in the area. The need for the action is established by the BLM’s responsibility under the Materials Act of 1947, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, and Title 43 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Subpart 3600. 1.3 Decision to be Made The decision to be made by the BLM authorized officer would be to either: (A) approve of the disposal of mineral materials and host a competitive sale for the material to be mined, or (B) deny the disposal of mineral materials located at the Salome marble quarry. If the disposal is approved, BLM would determine what terms and conditions would apply to contract. Page 1 1.4 Conformance with Applicable Land Use Plans Lake Havasu Field Office Resource Management Plan, Date Approved: May 2007 The proposed action and alternatives described below are in conformance with the Lake Havasu Field Office Resource Management Plan (RMP) (BLM 2007), page(s) #43, Management Action/Decision #MI-9: The total area open to mineral material disposal is 1,044,027 acres, and 299,297 acres are restricted from mineral development as shown in Map 16. 1.5 Relationship to Statutes, Regulations, Other Plans and Environmental Analysis Documents The Proposed Action and Alternatives are consistent with Federal laws and regulations, plans, programs and policies of affiliated tribes, other Federal agencies, State and local governments including, but not limited to, the following: CFR parts 3600, the Materials Act of 1947, and United States Code 601-604. CHAPTER 2 PROPOSED ACTION AND ALTERNATIVES 2.1 No Action Alternative Under the no action alternative, the BLM would deny the disposal of any additional mineral materials at the Salome Marble Quarry. The LHFO would not conduct a competitive bid sale of the material, and there would be no further expansion at the project site. The current contract issued to the current operator for removal of the existing crushed stockpiles would be the last mineral material contract at the Salome Marble Quarry. Once the stockpiles are removed, the site would be reclaimed. Leftover infrastructure from previous contracts including a water tank, scale, entrance gate, and sign would need to be removed and the water well onsite would need to be capped and abandoned in accordance with state regulations. 2.2 Proposed Action Due to the local demand from agriculture and solar field construction, the current proponent has submitted a request to remove additional materials from the Salome Marble Quarry. Based on this request the BLM is proposing to dispose of an additional 8 acres of mineral material adjacent to the existing quarry to allow for future mining and concrete operations in this area to meet these local demands (refer to maps 3 and 4 in Appendix C). The contract would be advertised as a competitive sale for 50,000 tons of marble and could be renewed on an as-needed basis. To authorize a competitive sale of mineral materials to interested parties in La Paz County, Arizona, an advertisement would be posted in the local newspaper pursuant to 43 CFR 3602.42. The material of interest is marble that could be mined onsite at the existing quarry on public lands. Some infrastructure is already in place from a previous operation including an entrance gate, scale, 8,000-gallon water tank, and water well that could be adopted by a future operator (refer to photographs in Appendix D). Water for processing, washing material, and dust abatement would be drawn from the existing well onsite. Other equipment for crushing, sorting, and hauling material would be brought in from applicants bidding on the material. A valuation of the material would be conducted to establish a Fair Market Value royalty, and a minimum bid necessary to hold a competitive sale. The Arizona Mineral Materials Commodity Study and Analysis (December 2018) would be used