Miles City Field Office May 4, 2016 Lease Sale EA
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United States Department of the Interior BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT Miles City Field Office 111 Garryowen Road In Reply Refer To: Miles City, Montana 59301-7000 www.blm.gov/mt May 4, 2016 Comp Sale 3160 (MTC023) December 1, 2015 Dear Reader: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Miles City Field Office has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) to analyze the potential effects from offering six nominated lease parcels for competitive oil and gas leasing in a sale tentatively scheduled to occur on May 4, 2016. The EA with an unsigned Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is available for a 30-day public comment period. Written comments must be postmarked by December 30, 2015, to be considered. Comments may be submitted using one of the following methods: Email: [email protected] Mail: Miles City Field Office Attn: Irma Nansel 111 Garryowen Road Miles City, Montana 59301-7000 Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – will be available for public review. If you wish to withhold personal identifying information from public review or disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), you must clearly state, in the first line of your written comment, “CONFIDENTIALITY REQUESTED.” While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. All submissions from organizations, from businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives of organizations or businesses, will be available for public review. Upon review and consideration of public comments, the EA will be updated as needed. Based on our analysis, parcels recommended for leasing in our assessment would be included as part of a competitive oil and gas lease sale tentatively scheduled to occur on May 4, 2016. Prior to issuance of any leases, the Decision Record and FONSI will be finalized and posted for public review on our BLM website. Please refer to the Montana/Dakotas BLM website at http://on.doi.gov/1LQChXI. Current and updated information about our EAs, Lease Sale Notices, and corresponding information pertaining to this sale can be found at the link referenced above. If you have any questions or would like more information about lease sale notices or the issuance of the EA, Decision Record and FONSI, please contact me at 406-233-2903. Sincerely, Eric D. Lepisto Acting Field Manager United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM-MT-C020-2016-0022-EA December 1, 2015 Project Title: Oil and Gas Lease Parcel, May 4, 2016 Sale Location: Miles City Field Office (see Appendix A for list of lease parcels by number and legal description and Maps 1-7) Miles City Oil and Gas Lease Sale EA DOI-BLM-MT-C020-2016-0022-EA 1.0 PURPOSE AND NEED ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action ....................................................................................... 1 1.3 Conformance with Land Use Plan(s) ................................................................................................... 2 1.4 Public Scoping and Identification of Issues ......................................................................................... 3 2.0 DESCRIPTION OF ALTERNATIVES, INCLUDING PROPOSED ACTION ........................................................ 4 2.1 Alternative A - No Action .................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Alternative B – Proposed Action ......................................................................................................... 4 2.3 Additional Considerations for Alternatives B ...................................................................................... 5 3.0 AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT ...................................................................................................................... 5 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5 3.2 Air Resources ...................................................................................................................................... 5 3.3 Soil Resources ................................................................................................................................... 12 3.4 Water Resources ............................................................................................................................... 13 3.5 Vegetation Resources ....................................................................................................................... 14 3.6 Wetland and Riparian Areas ............................................................................................................. 16 3.7 Special Status Species ....................................................................................................................... 18 3.8 Fish and Wildlife ................................................................................................................................ 22 3.9 Cultural Resources ............................................................................................................................ 24 3.10 Native American Religious Concerns .............................................................................................. 25 3.11 Paleontology ................................................................................................................................... 25 3.12 Visual Resources ............................................................................................................................. 26 3.13 Livestock Grazing ............................................................................................................................ 27 3.14 Recreation and Travel Management .............................................................................................. 27 3.15 Lands and Realty ............................................................................................................................ 27 3.16 Minerals .......................................................................................................................................... 28 3.17 Special Designations ....................................................................................................................... 29 3.18 Social and Economic Conditions ..................................................................................................... 30 4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS .................................................................................................................. 33 4.1 Assumptions and Reasonably Foreseeable Development Scenario Summary ................................. 33 4.2 Alternative A (No Action Alternative) ............................................................................................... 34 4.3 Alternative B (Proposed Action) ....................................................................................................... 34 5.0 CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION ................................................................................................. 45 5.1 Persons, Agencies, and Organizations Consulted ............................................................................. 45 5.2 Summary of Public Participation ....................................................................................................... 45 6.0 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 1. Visibility Trends at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and the Medicine Lake Wilderness. 8 Table 1. US EPA – Air Data Air Quality Index Report (2012–2014) 7 Table 2. Monitored Concentrations Representative of the Study Area 7 Table 3. Climate Change Trends in Northeastern Montana 10 Table 4. Riparian and Wetland Areas by Lease Parcel1 17 Table 5. Aquatic SSS that occur in or their ranges overlap with proposed lease parcels 18 Table 6. Analysis area occurrence of BLM terrestrial sensitive species and USFWS threatened, endangered, candidate or proposed terrestrial species. 19 Table 7. Geologic units and PFYC rank within the lease parcels. 26 Table 8. VRM Classes for the analysis area by lease parcel. 26 Table 9. Number of parcels, surface ownership, and acres by county. 27 Table 10. Existing oil and gas leasing and development by county. 29 Table 11. Estimated Federal, State, and County Revenue Associated with the Lease Sale. 43 Table 12. List of Preparers 45 Map 1. All Nominated Lease Parcels .......................................................................................................... 65 Map 2. Parcel MTM 105431-KH ................................................................................................................ 66 Map 3. Parcel MTM 102757-V8................................................................................................................