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The general area in which the Elk Creek Mine is located is characterized by steeply sloping <br />mountains covered either with tall shrub vegetation dominated by oakbrush and serviceberry, or <br />stands of pinyon and juniper trees. Drainages in the area are lined with riparian vegetation <br />communities along the stream banks. Some of the more level areas have been cleared and <br />support limited livestock grazing; however, for the most part, the surrounding land is <br />undeveloped and is used primarily as wildlife habitat. Recreational activities such as big game <br />hunting, trapping, fishing, and off -road driving also occur in the general area. <br />The Elk Creek portal facilities are approximately a half mile up the Elk Creek canyon from the <br />town of Somerset and are located at the contact of the alluvium of the North Fork and steep <br />upland sedimentary formations. <br />Sanborn Creek Tract portal facilities were just east of Sanborn Creek or approximately one mile <br />east of the town of Somerset. <br />Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans <br />The Somerset and Sanborn Creek Mines, now the Elk Creek Mine, have been in operation since <br />1902. Operations have evolved from the earlier hand method of mining, to continuous mining <br />methods, and, finally, to longwall mining. <br />The conventional room and pillar mining system used continuous miners, shuttle cars, conveyors <br />and /or rail cars. All coal was transported to the surface using rail cars. Approximately 12 to 14 <br />feet of the B seam were mined in the development and retreat cycle. Annual production in the <br />mine was approximately 900,000 tons per year. <br />Once at the surface, the rail cars dumped the coal at the dump station where it was conveyed to <br />the tipple. The coal was crushed at the tipple and conveyed to the coal storage silo. The silo, a <br />cylindrical cement structure, straddles the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad track and <br />was used to load unit trains. <br />The Sanborn Creek addition was located approximately one mile east of the town of Somerset. <br />Initially, this part of the mine was developed and mined using conventional room and pillar <br />techniques with the same conventional equipment as previously discussed, except that conveyors <br />were used in place of rail cars. Annual production of this part of the mine was projected to be <br />about 750,000 tons per year. Upon opening the portals, coal was first trucked to the tipple at the <br />Elk Creek yard. A conveyor system was built while developing the first part of the Sanborn <br />Creek addition. The conveyor system was used instead of haul trucks to convey coal from the <br />Sanborn Creek portals to the tipple at the Elk Creek yard. <br />The Sanborn Creek East Tract and the East Tract modification, are located adjacent to the <br />original Sanborn Creek addition on the eastern boundary and is an underground continuation of <br />the Sanborn workings. No additional surface disturbance was required. Method of operations <br />and production rate projections remained the same. <br />With the approval of Technical Revision No. 24 on February 15, 1995, the coal production level <br />0 <br />