{"id":71542,"date":"2017-02-10T18:30:18","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T01:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-commissioners-endorse-coal-mine-expansion\/"},"modified":"2017-02-11T01:30:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T01:30:18","slug":"montezuma-commissioners-endorse-coal-mine-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-commissioners-endorse-coal-mine-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma commissioners endorse coal mine expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=139db853-7bbb-4f90-96ae-950573c42186&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1667\" height=\"2400\" alt=\"A truck pulls in to be loaded with coal at GCC\u2019s King Coal mine in Southwest La Plata County. Mine owners hope to expand the mine.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A truck pulls in to be loaded with coal at GCC\u2019s King Coal mine in Southwest La Plata County. Mine owners hope to expand the mine.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The Montezuma County Commission supports a proposed expansion of the King Coal II mine near Hesperus.<\/p>\n<p>In a Jan. 23 comment letter, commissioners urged the Bureau of Land Management to approve the 952-acre expansion of King Coal\u2019s mining lease area.<\/p>\n<p>The project is going through a BLM environmental review process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMineral resources have been crucial to the Southwest Colorado economy for over 100 years,\u201d the commissioners stated. \u201cAccess to mineral resources of all kinds expands the diversity of our regional economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The coal mine has been operated by Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC Energy), in Mexico, since 2007. It employs 120 workers and subcontractors, and produces just under 1 million tons of coal per year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the mine workers commute from Montezuma County,\u201d said commissioner Keenan Ertel. \u201cThe mine supports a lot of other businesses too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most of the coal from the mine is used in regional cement plants, with some going to the coal-fired tourist train in Durango.<\/p>\n<p>The county letter adds that mine is compatible with the BLM\u2019s multiple use concept and is consistent with the BLM\u2019s 2015 Resource Management Plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs most of the operations of this mine are underground, the mining process would not be visible and would not impact surface resources in any significant manner,\u201d the letter states. \u201cThis is a relatively small mining operation and is clearly compatible in scale and character with other existing rural land uses within the area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, residents near the mine have concerns about increased mine truck traffic. As part of a permit with La Plata County, GCC Energy has pledged $10 million for improvements to County Road 120, which is the gateway to the mine in Hesperus.<\/p>\n<p>King II will be able to increase traffic to 100 trucks daily as road improvements are made over the next five years, with a maximum operational limit of 120 when the road project is complete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know the impacts are very real, and I really hope we are striking a balance between the company\u2019s right to operate and residents\u2019 right to peacefully enjoy their property,\u201d said La County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma County commissioners are scheduled for a tour of the mine.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\">The Durango Herald contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hesperus mine supports local economy, letter states<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1424,21,475,109,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-71542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coal","tag-cortez","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71542"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=71542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}