PALEONTOLOGY TECHNICAL REPORT GREENS HOLLOW COAL LEASE TRACT Prepared for: Bureau of Land Management Price Field Office 125 South 600 West Price, Utah 84501 Manti-La Sal National Forest 599 West Price River Drive Price, Utah 84501 Fishlake National Forest 115 East 900 North Richfield, Utah 84701 Prepared by: Gustav F. Winterfeld, Ph.D. Erathem-Vanir Geological 2021 Ardella Drive Pocatello, ID 83201-2605 Cirrus Ecological Solutions, LC 965 South 100 West, Suite 200 Logan, Utah 84321 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................ i List of Tables............................................................................................................................................... i List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. i 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Statement of Project Objectives .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of the Issues with Evaluation Criteria ................................................................................. 2 1.3 Description of the Alternatives Evaluated ........................................................................................... 3 1.3.1 Alternative 1 - No Action ............................................................................................................. 3 1.3.2 Alternative 2 – Proposed Action .................................................................................................. 3 1.3.3 Alternative 3 .................................................................................................................................. 5 2.0 Methods .................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Contacts Made ..................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Sources and Descriptions of Existing Information .............................................................................. 7 2.3 Data Collection and Analysis Methodology ........................................................................................ 7 2.4 Description of Inventories and Data Collected by the Consultant ....................................................... 8 3.0 Results and Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 11 3.1 Description of the Affected Environment.......................................................................................... 11 3.2 Detailed Technical Assessment/Description of the Potential Effects ................................................ 15 3.2.1 Alternative 1 – No Action Direct and Indirect Effects ............................................................... 15 3.2.2 Alternative 2 – Proposed Action Direct and Indirect Effects ..................................................... 15 3.2.3 Alternative 3 Direct and Indirect Effects .................................................................................... 16 3.3 Cumulative Effects ............................................................................................................................ 17 3.3.1 Reasonably Foreseeable Post-lease Surface Use on the Greens Hollow Tract ........................... 17 3.3.2 Reasonably Foreseeable Post-lease Surface Use Outside the Greens Hollow Tract ................... 17 4.0 Cited and Pertinent Literature........................................................................................................... 18 5.0 List of Preparers ............................................................................................................................... 26 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Summary of surface geologic deposits and paleontological resources in the Greens Hollow area. ................................................................................................................................................ 11 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Elements of the Proposed Action.................................................................................... ............... 4 Figure 2. Elements of Alternative 3.......................................................................................... ..................... 6 Figure 3. Geologic Map....................................................................................................... .......................... 9 Figure 4. Chart illustrating stratigraphic nomenclature and correlation of major Albian to middle Eocene rock units from the Sanpete Valley of central Utah to the Book Cliffs of Eastern Utah..10 i Paleontology Technical Report 2013 Greens Hollow Coal Lease Tract PALEONTOLOGY TECHNICAL REPORT GREENS HOLLOW COAL LEASE TRACT 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 STATEMENT OF PROJECT OBJECTIVES Passage of the Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998 included the exchange of lands to resolve issues associated with creation of the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument. To balance land values exchanged under that act, the coal estates on several tracts of federal coal underlying the Manti- LaSal National Forest (MLNF) were conveyed to the State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA). This conveyance is temporal and the ownership of the coal will revert back to the federal government once a specific tonnage is produced or a specified royalty value is collected. On the conveyed coal estates, SITLA has sole authority to lease the coal. Under the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and Utah Coal Rules, Forest Service must consent to the mine plan prior to mine development and can impose requirements for the protection of non-coal resources. The Forest Service decisions, as federal actions, are subject to the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), requiring environmental analysis and appropriate NEPA documents. The U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the leasing authority on the remaining federal coal estates within the Muddy Creek tract on National Forest System land. Under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended by the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1975, leases can only be issued by the BLM with consent from the Forest Service with conditions for protection of non-mineral resources. As federal actions subject to NEPA, both the BLM leasing decisions and the Forest Service consent decisions must be based on an environmental analysis and appropriate NEPA document. This resources technical report presents the results of analysis of the geology and paleontology of the Greens Hollow Federal Coal Lease Tract (Greens Hollow tract) conducted by Erathem-Vanir Geological Consultants (EVG, Pocatello, ID). EVG’s review supplements previous work in the area for the Muddy Tract (Cirrus 2004). Work for the Muddy Tract included a search of geologic and paleontological literature and maps, and discussions with Forest Service experts (McClelland 2003 and Robison 2003) with local experience. This report supplemented a confidential paleontology inventory of the Manti-La Sal National Forest conducted by the Forest Service (DeFreest 2000) and incorporated information derived from study of the same rock units as exposed in the project area conducted by EVG for the Aspen Pipeline in 1999 and along US Highway 6 between Interstate 15 and Interstate 80 in 2003 for SWCA, Inc in Salt Lake City. This technical report supplements this earlier work and will form the basis for an analysis of impacts to paleontological resources in the project area in the subsequent Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) planned for the Greens Hollow tract. 1 Paleontology Technical Report 2013 Greens Hollow Coal Lease Tract 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE ISSUES WITH EVALUATION CRITERIA Issue: Mining and subsequent subsidence could impact unidentified paleontological resources. Evaluation Criteria: Expected prehistoric sites and effects to them. Number of significant sites impacted. Potential impact on paleontological resources. Mining and associated subsidence could cause surface collapse or other disturbance that could adversely impact paleontological resources. Construction of reasonably foreseeable surface facilities for the mine could also adversely impact paleontological resources. BLM and USDA Forest Service policy recognizes that paleontological resources found on public lands constitute a fragile and nonrenewable scientific record of the history of life on Earth and so represent an important and critical component of America’s natural heritage. Once damaged, destroyed, or improperly collected, their scientific and educational value may be greatly reduced or lost forever. In addition to their scientific, educational and recreational values, paleontological resources can be used to inform land managers about interrelationships between the biological and geological components of ecosystems over long periods of time. The BLM and Forest Service manage paleontological resources for these values, and mitigates adverse impacts to them. To accomplish this goal, paleontological