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MEIR NARRATIVE August 13, 1992 Western-Fuels Colorado PO Box 628 Nucla, Colorado New Horizon mine Weather and Ground Conditions During the Inspection: cloudy, warm and dry with no precipitation within the last 24 hours Personnel Present During the Inspection: Lance Wade Western-Fuels Colorado Harry Ranney Colorado Mined land Reclamation Division Gary Fritz Office of Surface Mining\Albuquerque Field Office M244 ENFORCEMENT ACTION The State inspector issued Notice of Violation 9 C-92-029 for the operator's failure to have dual spillways on sediment ponds 2, 4, 5, and 6. Instead of the required emergency and primary spillway, they have a single pipe through the embankment of the dam that is designed for a 10 yr 29 hr storm event. At one time, the standards for these ponds allowed the single spillway built to the required design specifications. That particular Colorado Rule and Regulation was not equal to or better than the Federal Standard. The use of a single closed-conduit spillway in lieu of a combination of principal and emergency spillways. A single open-channel spillway may be used if designed and constructed according to certain specifications. Those rules also authorize the regulatory authority to approve temporary structures relying primarily on storage to control runoff from the design precipitation event, but only if certain additional specifications are met. Colorado included the requirements for the double spillway in their regulations January 17, 1990. Following that, initially as violations of the standard design with single closed-conduit were encountered in the field during oversight inspections, Ten-Day Notices were issued if the State did not issue a violation. This was later modified in an agreement between the State and OSM. The State of Colorado identified' those ponds in the field that had not been modified. They also agreed to issue a letter to the mining industry regarding the need for changing the single conduit-spillways. That letter from Colorado was sent May 15. 1991 with the requirement to have them reconstructed no later than September 1 of that year. This was not done at this mine. The violation has been issued. GENERAL COMMENTS This was a complete oversight inspection. The State was notified regarding my schedule and vas able to send someone to meet me so we could conduct a joint inspection. There is no mining in process at this time. The mine company is afflicted with other Western-Fuels operations in the West with their headquarters out of Washington, DC. At the present time, they have one employee, Mr. Wade, xorking on developing the property. Other work