a new importance. The Decker-Birney Resource Study (U.S. D.I. 1974) conducted 

 by the Bureau of Land Management in April of 1974 identified strippable coal 

 reserves underlying 145,422 ha (359,333 acres) of the planning unit in the 

 Tongue River Basin. Approximately 115,000 ha (285,000 acres) of this planning 

 unit overlie superior reserves of 15 billion tons of coal economically 

 feasible to mine. Other coal reserves exist outside that study's planning 

 unit yet within the Tongue River Basin. 



Figure 2 is a map of the Tongue River in Montana; figure 3 shows its 

 longitudinal profile. 



10 



