{"id":2447455,"date":"2019-08-12T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T03:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/blm-accepts-third-draft-of-rmr-quarry-expansion-proposal\/"},"modified":"2019-08-12T21:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T03:12:00","slug":"blm-accepts-third-draft-of-rmr-quarry-expansion-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/blm-accepts-third-draft-of-rmr-quarry-expansion-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"BLM accepts third draft of RMR quarry expansion proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bureau of Land Management has decided to complete the more extensive environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed Mid-Continent Quarry expansion near Glenwood Springs, the federal land agency announced Monday.<\/p>\n

The BLM released the complete proposal for the quarry expansion being put forth by operators RMR Industrials after reviewing the plan for completeness for a third time.<\/p>\n

This means that BLM can begin scheduling public hearings, and work on several studies that have to be completed before a final decision is reached.<\/p>\n

RMR\u2019s complete 260-page proposed expansion plan<\/a> is now available online.<\/p>\n

This is the third draft<\/a> of the proposal RMR has submitted, after the BLM sent back proposals in December and April.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s no surprise, since they\u2019re not a mining company, that it took them three shots. Now that they have the box checked, the rubber is going to really meet the road with the NEPA process,\u201d Glenwood Springs Mayor Jonathan Godes said.<\/p>\n

The BLM decided to do an EIS, instead of the less intensive environmental assessment, due to the significant impact of the proposed expansion, said David Boyd, spokesman for the Colorado River Valley Field Office.<\/p>\n

Standard project review under the National Environmental Protection Act can start with an environmental assessment first, and upgrade to the EIS if the government doesn\u2019t reach a \u201cfinding of no significant impact,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn larger projects that we know will have significant impacts, we go ahead and do an EIS,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very pleased that our calls for due process on this application have been heeded by the BLM.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been calling for the EIS process, as well as the separate NEPA effort for the existing operation, for over a year now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final plan generally follows previous drafts. RMR wants to expand from 15.7 permitted acres to 447 acres. The quarry is currently operating on more than 20 acres. The road to the quarry from Transfer Trail across BLM land accounts for about 9 of the permitted acres, RMR notes in their proposal.<\/p>\n

RMR also seeks to operate the quarry 24 hours a day, with crushing and hauling happening between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and blasting occurring between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Currently, RMR is supposed to cease operations from Dec. 15 to April 15, but under the new proposal it seeks to operate year-round.<\/p>\n

RMR\u2019s goal is to remove 5 million tons of rock from the quarry per year for about 20 years.<\/p>\n

Before the environmental review gets underway, the BLM needs several scientific studies and cultural surveys.<\/p>\n

The first official public comment period is \u201cmonths away,\u201d the BLM noted in a fact sheet<\/a> that accompanied the latest decision. The BLM expects to hold public meetings in the late spring or summer of 2020.<\/p>\n

The BLM also is working to determine which mining law applies to the quarry operations. High-quality, or chemical-grade limestone, is considered differently than limestone used for road base and other uses. Chemical limestone has specific uses, most often to suppress dust in coal mines.<\/p>\n

The lower grade limestone falls under a different system. Removing lower grade limestone rocks from public lands can come with a fee.<\/p>\n

The BLM is working on a mineral examination to determine which category of laws RMR\u2019s operations will fall under. That process is expected to take about a year.<\/p>\n

In the mean time, \u201cRMR is establishing an escrow account that will cover the appraised value of any minerals removed pending completion of the mineral examination, including past production,\u201d according to the BLM fact sheet.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bureau of Land Management has decided to complete the more extensive environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed Mid-Continent Quarry expansion near Glenwood Springs, the federal land agency announced Monday. The BLM released the complete proposal for the quarry expansion being put forth by operators RMR Industrials after reviewing the plan for completeness for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 22:47:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}