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Show i Task Force Organized for i Coal Impact Statements An interagency task force to prepare two regional environmental environ-mental impact statements i(EISs) on proposed and potential poten-tial coal mining and other coal-related activities in Cent-J Cent-J ral and Southern Utah is being f organized by the U.S. Geologi- cal Survey, Department of the I Interior. Activities to be covered by I the statements include pro- posed Federal actions on E, pending coal lease applica-! applica-! tions, industry proposals for development of existing Fed-l Fed-l eral coal leases, possible i future competitive sales of f additional Federal coal leases, I, and other applications to the Interior Department for various var-ious coal-related facilities and activities. The two EISs will analyze the impacts on about 3,700 square miles (9,580 square kilometers) in Carbon, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Sanpete, Sevier, Wayne, Iron, Kane and Washington Counties.. The Central and Southern Utah EISs are among 10 regional coal environmental impact statements in eight States Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Alabama which Interior Secretary Thomas S. Kleppe has ordered prepared over the next several years in connection connec-tion with the Department's new coal leasing policy. Leader of the Utah coal EIS task force is Edward S. Davidson, a USGS giologist-hydrologist giologist-hydrologist in Tucson, Ariz., who for the past five years has been chief of the Survey's Tucson-Phoenix Urban Are environmental-geologic study, completed this year. Members of the task force -expected to total about 40 persons will include personnel person-nel from the USGS, the Bureau of Land Management, other Interior Department agencies, the Forest Service and other Federal agencies. Although the extent of Utah State envolvement in preparation of the statements is not yet fully defined, the USGS expects State participation to be considerable, based on a preliminary briefing and discussion dis-cussion with senior State officials. Some of the data gathering and analysis may be contracted contrac-ted out by the USGS, either to private industry or to the State. Organization of the task force and establishment of its headquarters in Salt Lake City are expected to be completed sometime in September. The draft EISs are expected to be completed late in 1977, and the final statement filed with the Council on Environmental Quality by June 30, 1978. Public hearings and opportunities oppor-tunities for written public comments are planned for both draft statements. The final statements then will be considered in subsequent decisions de-cisions on possible coal lease sales and the various applications applica-tions and proposals pending before the Department. Additional Addi-tional notices will be published when the draft statements are available ind when public hearings have been scheduled. |