INSPEC14815

• Permit No: C1980007
• IBM Index Class Name: Inspection
• Doc Name: Inspection Report
• Inspection Date: 8/17/2004
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

III. COMMENTS -COMPLIANCE
This. was a complete OSM oversight inspection conducted by Jim Burnell of CDMG on
Tuesday and Wednesday, August 17 & 18, 2004. The inspection was accompanied by
Henry Barbe of Mountain Coal Company, and Henry Austen of the Office of Surface Mining.
The weather was partly cloudy and fair, threatening rain both days. The site was busy. The
mine is in the midst of a iongwall move. Stockpiles were reasonably high, having been
allowed to accumulate to last through the downtime. Availability of trains has been bad,
apparently, and coal has been shipped slowly.
The meadow road was in good condition but, like everywhere else in Colorado, was infested
with bindweed. The disturbed area of the "thermal event" sites was stable.
Individual degas pads were visited. At the 14-01 site, the regraded pad was stable and
there was no erosion, but the vegetation had been grazed heavily by the cattle pool on the
USFS land. Grass remained, but it was clipped to the ground. ATVs had traversed over the
tank trap at the entrance to the site and there were tire tracks all over the reclaimed area.
The 14-02 site, adjacent, was also hard hit be cattle grazing. The topsoil pile at the 14-02
site was signed but the silt fence had been knocked down by cattle.
The areas all along the road to site 22.-01 and 02, including sites 23-02 and 22-01, were
reclaimed and stable. Site 22-01/02 itself was not yet reclaimed; it consisted of a bare pad.
Silt fence was installed and standing and the topsoil pile was signed.
The 22-05 pad was not yet reclaimed. Silt fence was installed. The slope of the pad will
facilitate drainage off the pad and onto a slope below and there is a danger of erosion there.
Special care should be taken to prevent any erosion and to prepare the site for winter.
The inspection party was passed by the water truck, wetting down the roads to prevent dust.
The pad for the 16-08 drillhole is a large, flat pad that was grazed heavily. The pad was
covered with aground-hugging annual while the slopes had fairly good grass cover. The
topsoil pile was well vegetated and signed.
The sites of the alluvial wells on the upper Dry Fork were visited, along with the site of a new
flume to be installed on that creek. The upstream alluvial well is located just downgradient of
an area where the creek passes over bedrock. Also visited the pad where two up-gradient
monitoring wells are located for the B and E-seams near the road above Lower Cow Camp.
The pad shows good revegetation. One of the wells lacks an external lock.
The refuse pile expansion area (RPE) was undergoing the next phase of build-out, following
plans approved in MR-303. New topsoil was already in place on the north face of the pile;
biomatting had been applied over the surface and there was excellent grass growth coming
through the matting already. Cell A of the RPE pond contained water; cell B was nearly dry.
There were cattails and tamarisk in the bottom of cell B. The tamarisk must be removed as
soon as possible. The new drainage for the RPE had been installed. The 100-year ditch on
the slope above the RPE was clean and clear and in good condition.
At the shaft 3 amphithreatre, the horizontal methane drainage wells were running. The
slopes and benches of the cut were stable. The clean water ditch around the disturbed area
(ditch Dsly-18) was heavily vegetated with a variety of vegetation including grasses, cicer