The Notice of Availability (NOA) of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) published in the Federal Register on August 9, 2024: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/08/09/2024-17683/notice-of-availability-of-the-draft-environmental-impact-statement-for-the-dry-creek-trona-mine.
The 45-day comment period ends September 23, 2024.
The Ashley National Forest is soliciting comments on the portion of the Dry Creek Trona Mine Project that would occur on National Forest System (NFS) lands.
Lead Agency: USDI Bureau of Land Management (BLM), High Desert District
Cooperating Agency: USDA Forest Service (USFS), Ashley National Forest, Flaming Gorge Ranger District
Sweetwater County, WY
USFS Responsible Official: Acting Forest Supervisor Kristy Groves
A DEIS for this project is now available. Pacific Soda, LLC submitted a project proposal to the BLM to construct mining facilities and employ solution mining technologies to develop their BLM leases by mining trona beds 2,300 feet below the surface and processing that trona into approximately 6.0 million metric tons of marketable soda ash every year. The proposed project (including mining infrastructure, processing facilities, a co-generation plant, storage ponds, a landfill, transportation facilities, and other related utilities) would disturb approximately: 3,369 acres of private land; 2,947 acres of BLM-administered lands; and 9 acres of lands administered by the USFS. The 9 acres of USFS land would be needed under the proposed action to authorize a buried waterline adjacent to Wyoming Highway 530 and under the Black’s Fork River in the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.
The USFS is soliciting comments on the USFS portion of the project. Questions on the USFS portion of the project may be directed to: Rhett Burkman, Realty Specialist, at 435-781-5133 or rhett.burkman@usda.gov.
The USFS portion of the project is subject to the objection process in Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 218, Subparts A and B.
How to Comment and Timeframe
The Environmental Protection Agency published an NOA for the DEIS in the Federal Register on 8/9/2024. The opportunity to comment on the DEIS ends 45 days following that date (so will end 9/23/2024). The publication date of the NOA in the Federal Register is the exclusive means for calculating the comment period.
Individuals and organizations must meet the requirements of 36 CFR Subparts A and B to gain standing to object to a future USFS draft decision on this project. Only those who submit timely and specific written comments (§218.2) on the USFS portion of the proposed project during a designated opportunity for public comment will be eligible to file an objection to the USFS (§218.5[a]). For objection eligibility, each individual or representative from each entity submitting timely and specific written comments regarding the USFS portion of the proposed project must either sign the comments or verify identity upon request (§218.24[b][8]). Comments must meet the requirements in §218.25(a)(3).
You may submit comments on the project via the BLM project webpage: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/admin/project/2016395/510. Alternatively, if you have comments specific to the USFS portion of the project and would like to gain standing to object to a potential USFS decision on that portion of the project, you may submit comments to the Forest Supervisor on the USFS project webpage: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/ashley/?project=59259 (click on “Comment/Object on Project”). Comments on the USFS portion of the project may also be mailed to 355 N Vernal Ave, Vernal, UT 84078 or hand-delivered during the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding federal holidays. It is the responsibility of those providing comments to submit them by the close of the comment period.
Rhett Burkman
