1996-10-23_REVISION - C1981008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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mmary The Review Process Western Fuels-Colorado, a Limited Liability Company,purchased the Nucla and Nucla East Mines from Peabody Coal Company and renamed them the New Horizon Mine 1 and 2 respectively. The transfer of ownership and succession of operator was completed on May 15, 1992. Both mines are located in Montrose County, however PR-04 and this findings document refers only to New Horizon Mine 2. The mine can be located on USGS 7.5 Quadrangle Map of Nucla. The surface land addresses in this permit revision is located 2.5 miles west of Nucla, Colorado. The original permit for C-81-008 was submitted by Peabody on January 9, 1981 and was approved by the Division on April 14, 1983. The permit was subsequently renewed for an additional 5 year term by the Division in May of 1988. On April 29, 1988, Peabody submitted a Permit Revision to add an additional 220 acres to the permit (formerly Nucla East, now New Horizon Mine 2). This revision was approved on February 28, 1989. On April 26, 1993, the Division approved the second additional five-year renewal for Western Fuels-Colorado with a stipulation that a permit revision be submitted to separate the permit application into two separate documents since the two mines were not contiguous. The stipulation was satisfied with the submission of PR-03 which was approved on June 1, 1994. On April 22, 1996, the Division received an application for a permit revision, PR-04, to add an additional 100.7 acres to the New Horizon Mine 2 area. The application was deemed complete on May 10, 1996 and public notices were published in the San Miguel Basin Forum shortly there after. On August 28, 1996, the Division sent an initial adequacy review to Western Fuels-Colorado. Numerous comments between Western Fuels and the Division were sent back and forth and on September 24, 1996, the Division received final comments from WFC. All issues had been adequately addressed with the receipt of these final comments. During the entire review process, no public comments were received by the Division concerning this permit revision. AVS checks were conducted three times during the review , the last one on October 29, 1996. All AVS checks came back with an ISSUE recommendation. Description of the Environment Introduction The New Horizon Mine 1 permit area encompasses 327 acres MOL. The New Horizon Mine 2 area encompasses 332 acres MOL for a total permit area of approximately 659 acres. Portions of Mine 2 lie within the western edge of the town of Nucla, Colorado. The mine anticipates that it will disturb approximately 300 acres due to mining or related activities. The topography is gently sloping with a few small ridges and swales. Most of the land surrounding the permit area is agricultural and is used primarily for irrigated and non-irrigated farmland which produces alfalfa and pasture grasses. The New Horizon Mine 1 area has been reclaimed and therefore is being returned to pastureland and/or wildlife habitat. 4 I