United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM-MT-C020-2017-0051-EA July 11, 2017 Project Title: December 12, 2017 Oil and Gas Lease Parcel Sale Location: Miles City Field Office (see Appendix A for list of lease parcels by number and legal description and Maps A-1 to 49) Miles City Oil and Gas Lease Sale EA DOI-BLM-MT-C020-2017-0051-EA 1.0 PURPOSE AND NEED .......................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action .......................................................................... 6 1.3 Conformance with Land Use Plan(s) .................................................................................... 7 1.4 Public Scoping and Identification of Issues .......................................................................... 7 2.0 DESCRIPTION OF ALTERNATIVES ................................................................................................ 10 2.1 Alternative A - No Action ................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Alternative B – Proposed Action ........................................................................................ 10 2.3 Additional Considerations for Alternatives B ..................................................................... 10 3.0 AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT ............................................................................................................ 11 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 11 3.2 Air Resources ...................................................................................................................... 11 3.3 Soil Resources ..................................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Water Resources .................................................................................................................. 20 3.5 Vegetation Resources .......................................................................................................... 22 3.6 Wetland and Riparian Areas ............................................................................................... 24 3.7 Special Status Species (Aquatics, Avian, and Terrestrial) .................................................. 25 3.8 Threatened, Endangered, or Candidate, and Proposed Wildlife Species ............................ 28 3.9 Fish and Wildlife ................................................................................................................. 29 3.10 Cultural Resources ............................................................................................................ 30 3.11 Native American Religious Concerns ............................................................................... 31 3.12 Paleontology ...................................................................................................................... 32 3.13 Visual Resources ............................................................................................................... 33 3.14 Livestock Grazing ............................................................................................................. 34 3.15 Recreation and Travel Management ................................................................................. 34 3.16 Lands and Realty ............................................................................................................... 35 3.17 Minerals ............................................................................................................................. 36 3.18 Social and Economic Conditions ...................................................................................... 39 4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS .......................................................................................................... 43 ii 4.1 Assumptions and Reasonably Foreseeable Development Scenario Summary ................... 43 4.2 Alternative A (No Action Alternative)................................................................................ 44 4.3 Alternative B (Proposed Action) ......................................................................................... 45 5.0 CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION ...................................................................................... 60 5.1 Persons, Agencies, and Organizations Consulted ............................................................... 60 5.2 Summary of Public Participation ........................................................................................ 60 6.0 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 62 Table 1. Air Quality Index Data 2014-2016 ................................................................................. 12 Table 2. Air Monitoring Values within the Analysis Area 2014 -2016........................................ 13 Table 3. Climate Change Trends in Northeastern Montana ......................................................... 17 Table 4. Aquatic BLM Sensitive Species that occur in or their ranges overlap with proposed lease parcels .................................................................................................................................. 26 Table 5. Avian and Terrestrial BLM Sensitive Species that occur in or their ranges overlap with proposed lease parcels................................................................................................................... 27 Table 6. Suitable Habitat Occurrence of USFWS Threatened or Endangered Aquatic, Terrestrial, and Avian Species found in the MCFO ........................................................................................ 28 Table 7. Geologic units and PFYC rank within the lease parcels. ................................................ 33 Table 8. VRM Classes I and II for the lease parcels by County. .................................................. 34 Table 9. BLM Rights-of-Ways by proposed lease parcel. ............................................................ 35 Table 10. Existing oil and gas leasing and development by county. ............................................ 36 Table 11. Existing oil and gas leasing and development by county, continued. .......................... 37 Table 12. Coal leases within proposed oil and gas lease parcels. ................................................. 38 Table 13. Estimated Air Emissions from Well Development and Production ............................. 48 Table 14. Estimated Downstream GHG Emissions Due to Fossil Fuel Combustion ................... 50 Table 15. Estimated Federal Revenue Associated with the December 2017 Lease Sale ............. 58 Table 16. List of Prepares ............................................................................................................. 60 Appendix A - Parcel description and proposed leasing stipulations............................................. 66 Appendix B- Description of Miles City Field Office Stipulation Applied ................................. 252 Appendix C - Reasonably Foreseeable Development Scenario for the December 12, 2017 Lease Sale .............................................................................................................................................. 258 Appendix D. Lease Sale Prioritization Sequence Consideration Factors ................................... 260 Map A- 1 Overview of December 12, 2017 Nominated Parcels ................................................ 262 Map 1. Parcels C4, C6, C7, DB, and DC .................................................................................... 263 Map 2. Parcel CV ........................................................................................................................ 264 Map 3. Parcels KR, KT, KU, EP ................................................................................................ 265 iii Map 4. Parcel FE......................................................................................................................... 266 Map 5. Parcel GG ....................................................................................................................... 267 Map 6. Parcel UQ. ..................................................................................................................... 268 Map 7. Parcels W7, XA, XB, and XL ........................................................................................ 269 Map 8. Parcels Y3, Y4, Y6, Y9, YT, YU, YV, YX and YY ...................................................... 270 Map 9. Parcels 83 and 8Y ........................................................................................................... 271 Map 10. Parcels AM, AN, AR, AT and AU ............................................................................... 272 Map 11. Parcels CD, CF and CK ................................................................................................ 273 Map 12. Parcels WP, WQ, WY and X3 ...................................................................................... 274 Map 13. Parcels YE, YF, YH, YL, YM and YQ .......................................................................