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T <br />Elk Creek Mine; pQ. 2 <br />We drove next to the lower and upper Hubbard Creek areas, former surface facilities that <br />aze reclaimed (former US Steel facilities). Both of these areas are stable and becoming <br />well vegetated with cool season grasses primarily. The USFS reportedly will propose to <br />use the Upper Hubbard Creek facility as a parking area /trail head post mining land use <br />according to inspection participants. It is being used as such currently, and this road gets <br />a lot of use for access to USFS lands on the mesa above here. Drill crews were using the <br />parking area during the inspection, and a camper trailer was here overnight also. The <br />topsoil stockpile is stable, and the sediment pond was completely dry. The Lower <br />Hubbard Creek facility is an extremely dry, south to southwest facing slope. Vegetation <br />is becoming established with competition from cheat grass and bindweed; and the area is <br />stable. The south portion of this area is used by BLM as a trail head. We briefly discussed <br />the Blue Ribbon Mine reclaimed area while adjacent to it at this location. Oxbow has <br />tentative plans to develop a mine fan facility on or adjacent to the reclaimed area. Oxbow <br />owns the surface of the Blue Ribbon reclamation area. Recent surveying markers are <br />evident on the reclaimed area (we inspected this mine June 7, 2004). <br />We next inspected the 2 West valley fill construction for coal waste /gob storage. <br />Topsoil is being salvaged and the permittee is doing a goodjob of salvaging all available, <br />suitable soil materials beyond what is required. The keyway cut for the retaining wall <br />adjacent to the railroad to provide runoff control had been completed recently, and <br />roadways to the facility are being completed. The 2 West gob pile is located just west of <br />the existing gob pile, and the last lift is being completed on the first gob pile. There is an <br />existing mass movement /slide area just adjacent to and northwest of the 2 West gob hill. <br />Competent rock is being salvaged and stockpiled for underdrain construction. We <br />inspected the reclaimed outstopes of the ls` gob pile and Chey are stable and becoming <br />revegetated, <br />We next observed the reclaimed east yard gob pile, and second season vegetation is <br />becoming established. The former Sanborn Creek portal area was reclaimed fall of 2003 <br />and hydroseeded. This area is stable, and all roadside ditches are protected with straw <br />wattles. All but a small section of the former conveyor and footers, etc., have been <br />salvaged and the area reclaimed. This concluded our inspection on June 8. <br />We resumed our inspection on June 9 beginning at the fan on the upstream end of the Elk <br />Creek mine. The main topsoil stockpile is stable with little erosion, undisturbed area <br />runoff diversions and inlets are stable, and the ASCA areas are functioning as designed. <br />There is a small slump west of the rock dust silo that inspection participants indicated <br />was basically stable with no movement noted recently. There is a steady seep flowing <br />from the slope just above and directly west of the rock dust silos into the roadside ditch <br />(from the top of the E seam, contributing to the small slump at the rock dust azea). <br />