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Coal Ridge No. 1 Mine C-1984-065: MT-08 April 2, 2019 <br /> <br />Page 3 of 27 <br /> <br />Section I - Mine History and the Environment <br /> <br />The Coal Ridge No. 1 Mine’s current status is Inactive. No coal production is planned for the current <br />permit term. Proposed activities include maintenance and monitoring activities. <br /> <br />The mine is located on private lands within Garfield County. The legal description of the lands included <br />within the permit area is: <br /> <br /> Township 6 South, Range 91 West, 6th PM <br /> Sec. 1: Those Lands in the NE¼ yet south of the right-of-way of County Road <br />335, Lots 3 and 4, S½, S ½ NW¼ <br /> Sec. 12: N½ NE¼ <br /> <br />These areas of the permit are covered by USGS 7.5-minute topographic maps Storm King Mountain and <br />New Castle quadrangles. The permit area is located to the south of the Colorado River, approximately 7 <br />miles west of Glenwood Springs, Colorado; and on the south side of County Road 335, approximately <br />1.5 mile east of the I-70 105 New Castle, Colorado interchange. The reclaimed disturbed areas (the mine <br />portal and facilities area) are located at the base of a steep escarpment of the Grand Hogback. <br /> <br />Description of the Environment <br /> <br />The surface facilities of the mine were located on north-sloping fan terraces at the foot of the Grand <br />Hogback. The lower terraces of the site, at elevation approximately 5,800 feet, are approximately 150 <br />feet above the Colorado River, and are used as cropland (grass and alfalfa) and for grazing. The base of <br />the steep slopes is used for grazing (sagebrush areas). <br /> <br />Geology <br /> <br />Rock strata dip ranges from 30 to 70 degrees to the west-southwest. Minor folds trending north-south to <br />northwest-southeast occur throughout the region. However, there is little evidence of faulting along the <br />Grand Hogback. <br /> <br />The exposed rock sequence in the permit area is Jurassic through Tertiary in age and includes <br />(proceeding from the base to the top, oldest to youngest) th e Morrison Formation, Dakota Sandstone, <br />Mancos Shale, the coal-bearing Mesaverde Group, and the Wasatch and Ohio Creek formations. <br /> <br />The stratigraphy of the Mesaverde Group includes interbedded and lenticular sandstones, shale, siltstone, <br />and coal beds. In ascending order (oldest to youngest), the Group contains (1) the Corcoran Sandstone, <br />a marine shale sequence, and the Rollins Sandstone; (2) the Bowie (coal-bearing) member; (3) the Paonia <br />(coal-bearing) member; and (4) the Upper (non-coal bearing) member. The Corcoran and Rollins <br />Sandstones are the bottom and top, respectively, of the Iles Formation, and the upper three members <br />belong to the Williams Fork Formation [see Figure 3.3 -2 in the Permit Application Package (PAP)]. <br /> <br />The Wheeler coal seam, which was planned to be mined at the Coal Ridge No. 1 Mine, is in the Williams <br />Fork Formation within the Bowie member. Coal seams in the Bowie member are the most continuous <br />of any of the Mesaverde coals. Their cumulative thickness is 33 to 54 feet.