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This was a complete inspection conducted by Jim Burnell of CDMG on Wednesday, September 19, 2001. The site was active as the operator was in the middle of a longwall move. There was a good stockpile of coal and a train was loading the morning the inspection started. The inspection was accompanied by Kathy Welt and Mark Milner of Oxbow Mining, Inc. The road up to the gob vent borehole sites was in excellent condition. A contractor was actively reinstalling silt fence at one of the switchbacks. There had been some heavy rain recently and there was evidence of significant runoff. The siltfence worked effectively to prevent sedimentation. There are several long stretches of road down which the runoff can develop a strong velocity as well as volume. The Division recommends that additional water bars be installed on the longer stretches of road to help route flow off the road, and "segment" the runoff length. At the first gob vent borehole site, the mudpits (5 of them) were still wet and several contained a great deal of water. The operator has contracted with a company for an evaporator unit to get rid of the water. That unit arrived during the inspection. The operator insured me that this is a high priority and that the mudpits would be completely dry and reclaimed in a week. The Clearwater diversion ditch was walked around the pad. Multiple straw bales and silt fence was installed at the downhill end of the ditch. These had worked effectively during the recent rains, by evidence on the ground. Three wells at that site were actively venting methane, with two more ready to go on line to degas the next longwall panel. At the wnd pad down over the hill, there was nothing new since the last inspection. Two mudpits were still wet. One well was actively venting methane and a second was ready for activation in the next panel. The pad was neat and orderly. Perimeter ditch functioning. The first truckload of cover was being unloaded on the east yard gob pile. This material was brought in from the Elk Creek construction site. Material from the beltline was not escaping and was contained by the berm constructed on the outslope. At the Elk Creek construction site, the declines were being actively dug by a contractor. The construction contractor doing the surface work was in the process of vacating the site. The borrow area on the west slope above the site was in its final configuration. It is not the same configuration as the design because of instability encountered during construction. A series of benches and terraces have been constructed, zig-zagging up the face of the slope. These configuration is designed to prevent the focusing of surface drainage, but to move it instead off each side, away from the main mass. A large protective berm has been constructed at the base of the slope, between the slope and the declines to intercept any rockfall that might occur and protect the operation at the bottom. Construction had not yet started on the shafts, either the two large shafts up the canyon or the smaller ventilation shaft just north of the declines.