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generated from the mine and coal preparation plant was expected to average <br />200,000 cubic yards per year. During the period from June 2004 through 2011 <br />(7.5 years) the coal mine waste generated from the preparation plant averaged <br />350,000 cubic yards per year. <br />A new section of haul road was constructed along the toe of the fill and is shown <br />on Figure 1. Details of the haul road are presented on Map -16, Volume II. <br />General Plan <br />The coal mine waste disposal area, along with cross sections are shown on <br />Figure 1. <br />The bedrock at this site consists of the nearly flat -lying Cretaceous age Mancos <br />Shale, a transitional deep to shallow water - deposited marine shale with <br />sandstone interbeds that forms the base of the steep -sided valley in which the <br />North Fork of the Gunnison River flows. Outcrops of the Mancos Shale are <br />prominent on the south valley side. Colluvium generally covers the Mancos <br />Shale, consisting of gravity- deposited slopewash from the rocks above. <br />Outcropping about 350 -feet above the valley floor is the Rollins Sandstone, a <br />massive to bedded cemented beach sandstone about 100 -feet thick that forms <br />the basal unit of the Cretaceous age Mesaverde Formation. <br />Volume II, Map 6, Geologic Hazards shows three hazards in the subject area, <br />rockfall, expansive soil or rock and debris avalanche. The three geologic <br />hazards are considered inconsequential to the design, stability or operation of <br />the coal mine waste disposal area. <br />The coal mine waste bank is located in an ephemeral drainage, D- Gulch, with a <br />drainage area of approximately 0.6 square miles. Groundwater, if present in this <br />ephemeral drainage, would consist of steep sloped colluvial material being <br />recharged by snowmelt and drained by intermittent seeps or springs. The <br />Operator has monitored the surface flow from D -Gulch on a quarterly basis from <br />1995 to the present and has not recorded any surface flow. No springs or seeps <br />have been detected in the founding of the coal mine waste disposal area. The <br />vegetation in the drainage area above the coal mine waste bank is <br />predominately oak brush (mixed shrub) with some Pinyon Juniper. <br />TR -76 - 2 - 11/12 <br />