The Bureau of Land Management has extended the comment period to Jan. 11 for input on GCC Dacotah's application for a 100-foot-wide right of way across federal lands in southwestern Custer County.

A public meeting is scheduled for Monday at the Dewey Clubhouse from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The right of way would allow construction of about seven miles of an enclosed, above-ground conveyor belt to transfer limestone from a quarry to a rail-loading facility near Dewey in Custer County.

GCC Dacotah, operator of the Rapid City cement plant, plans to open a limestone quarry near the South Dakota-Wyoming state line. However, it will likely be several years before the quarry begins producing limestone, a company official said earlier this fall.

Gene Nelson, environmental manager for GCC, said the company has enough limestone reserves in the vicinity of the Rapid City cement plant to keep the plant operating for 20 years or more. But the company's long-term plans include eventually quarrying rock near Dewey and shipping it to Rapid City by train.

The proposed project would cross about 1-1/2 miles of national forest lands and about one mile of lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The remainder would cross private land owned by GCC Dacotah.

The BLM is preparing an environmental impact statement to analyze the proposal. This project is currently in the scoping phase, when potential environmental impacts and reasonable alternatives are identified, according to a BLM news release.

A map of the area, information about the meeting, and instructions for providing comments can be found on the project Web site: www.blm.gov/mt/st/en/fo/south_dakota_field.html. To ensure consideration, comments should be submitted by Jan. 11.

For more information, contact Marian Atkins with the BLM at 892-7001 or marian_atkins@blm.gov.