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III. COMMENTS -COMPLIANCE Below are comments on the inspection. The comments include discussion of observations made during the inspection. Comments also describe any enforcement actions taken during the inspection and the facts or evidence supporting the enforcement action. This was a complete inspection of the Hawks Nest Mine conducted by Tony Waldron of DMG. The permit has been revoked and the site was reclaimed by the Division. The inspection began at the Delta County Landfill which is the location for the mine's refuse disposal area. The landfill is using the refuse as an intermediate cover for the common waste disposal site. They have agreed in principal to reclaim the remaining refuse pile to permitted standards for cover (including topsoil) and vegetation establishment. Delta County and the Division are very close to formalizing the agreement to allow this transfer of reclamation responsibility to occur. No problems were observed at the actual refuse disposal area. The inspection continued at the reclaimed mine site where some maintenance problems were identified. The east area is exhibiting some signs of erosion as evidenced by the presence of several rills with the potential of becoming gullies unless remedial action is taken. A designed channel was constructed to convey discharge from a spring north of the old state highway. This channel is holding up very well and starting to exhibit vegetation establishment through the jute matting. However, a small slump has occurred where the spring emanates from the hillside. This has blocked the inlet to the culvert that conveys this spring under the highway and into the constructed channel. The effect has been to cause the spring to migrate west and enter the reclaimed area outside of a conveyance structure and channel. The result is that the spring generated water is meandering across the regraded coal waste and starting to create small rills. The only positive effect is that where the water is flowing the vegetation is doing better than adjacent unwatered areas. There is also a serious infestation of Russian Knapweed (Centaurus repens) mostly concentrated along the lower portion of the east area and running parallel .to the river. This infestation will be mapped on the next inspection and a treatment plan will be developed to address this problem. This may involve contracting out the work if enough revocation funds are left or it could involve in-house spraying. The portals were inspected and no additional subsidence problems were identified. During the spring/summer of 1995 three of the portals exhibited subsidence features that exposed the concrete portal entrance structures. This problem was repaired during the summer of 1995 and the backfill repair is holding so far.