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<br />Minesite Evaluation Narrative Report <br />Walden Coal Co. <br />Bourg Strip <br />Permit #C-021-B1 <br />11/15/84 <br />Walt Ayres, Superintendent, Walden Coal Co. <br />Gary Fritz, OSM 244 <br />This was a complete oversight inspection of the coal mining operation <br />and the Northgate tipple area. <br />Production at the mine for 1983 was close to a 120,000 tons from the <br />Sudduth and Hoyle seams. Mining has progressed from stage 4 to stage <br />5 in the active area. Spoil is being hauled off of the Sudduth Seam <br />up to the horseshoe dump. <br />Spoil from the initial cut, 1.2 million yards, was hauled into a <br />drainage and leveled out over areas up to 70 feet deep. The area is <br />now brought up to grade, ripped, resoiled, mulched and planted with <br />permanent cover. <br />Workings from the old McCallum Mine were encountered during the <br />initial cut. <br />An undesireable sodic layer of topsoil was encountered during the <br />initial stages of mining. The toxic material was segregated and <br />stockpiled temporarily until it can he placed back in the pit in a <br />lower neutral zone. <br />Alluvial ground water from the Mann Draw is being encountered in <br />several areas along the pit wall. About 15 to 20,000 gallons a week <br />has to be pumped up and into a surface water pond for additional <br />retention before discharging off the permit area into Mann Draw. <br />The discharge records for the mine (NPDES permit #CO-0036854 expires <br />March 31, 1986) appeared to be in order. Two reported NPDES <br />violations from ponds A, B & H for total suspended solids occurred <br />respectively July 9, 1984 and October 10, 1983. Records since then <br />indicate no problem. The company has 11 alluvial wells in Mann Draw <br />of these 9 are consistently dry. Several of the wells do not have <br />caps on the pipe. I advised Mr. Ayres to have them covered. He said <br />that the state was allowing him to leave the wells open temporarily <br />because they are emitting volitale gases from an upstream oil well. <br />OSM has no problem with the practice as long as it is monitored and <br />recorded for future reference in case there is a question about water <br />quality in the area. <br />