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<br />Coal Gulch Mine <br />Bond forfeiture <br />Special focus evaluation <br />3/2/00 <br />Mitchell S. Rollings, 370, OSM <br />Henry Austin, OSM <br />Howard Strand, OSM <br />Dave Berry, DMG <br />This mine site was selected for evaluation as part of a special focus review for off-site impacts <br />associated with bond forfeiture sites. OSM and DMG will evaluate all bond forfeiture sites in <br />Colorado; there are 14 of these sites. <br />Impacts that are located outside of the area directly disturbed by the mining operation or off of <br />the area authorized by DMG to be disturbed when the operation was active would be considered <br />an off-site impact. OSM Directive REG-8 was used as guidance to determine the kind of <br />resource, and the type and degree of impact for off-site impacts. People, structures, land, and <br />water resources were observed during this evaluation to determine whether or not an off-site <br />impact has occurred. <br />The observations made during these evaluations will be reported in OSM's Annual Evaluation <br />Summary Report for Colorado for the evaluation period. This information will be carried <br />forward to future evaluation periods in order to track the number of off-site impacts associated <br />with Colorado bond forfeitures. The record will be adjusted if additional off-site impacts occur, <br />or as DMG continues to reclaim the forfeited properties using bond money, severance tax, etc. <br />Site Conditions <br />This is a forfeited and reclaimed underground mine. The site was backfilled, graded, and seeded. <br />A clean water diversion routes drainage from the old channel bottom around the site. Disturbed <br />area runoff is caught by a depression and a constructed sedimentation pond. <br />An adjacent landowner has used his property to store commercially available topsoil near the <br />entrance. Part of the disturbance from the topsoil operation has blocked the spillway from the <br />Coal Gulch sedimentation pond. The pond is still functioning to trap the disturbed area <br />sediments. No water was leaving the site during this inspection. <br />This site is downslope from the forfeited Amess-McGriffin mine. Erosion on the Arness- <br />McGriffin mine has resulted in deposition fans on the Coal Gulch mine. The deposition has only <br />had a minor impact on the reclaimed area. <br />We did not observe any off-site impacts from this mine. <br />