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III. COMMENTS -COMPLIANCE Below are comments on the inspection. The comments include discussion of observations made during the inspection. Comments also describe any enforcement actions taken during the inspection and the facts or evidence supporting the enforcement action. This was a partial inspection conducted by Tom Gillis of the Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology. With the operator's consent, this report was issued from the Durango office. The mine was active with several trucks waiting to be loaded. Although the ground was nearly dry at the time of the inspection, there was evidence of a fairly high intensity storm event occurring within the past few days. Hydrologic Balance All ponds were functioning properly at the time of the inspection and appear to have more than adequate sediment storage capacity. All drainage from disturbed aeeas is being adequately routed to the ponds. However, a recent storm event has caused the inlet end of a corrugated plastic culvert situated behind the bathhouse to tilt upward from rapid accumulation of coal fines in the stilling basin below the inlet. The operator is in the process of re- positioning the culvert inlet to the correct elevation and indicated that a small excavator would be on site within the next few days to clean out the stilling basin and re-set the culvert inlet. The operator also indicated that maintenance work has been scheduled to replace segments ofdeteriorated silt fencing placed at the outlets of two small road drainage collection areas situated neaz the mine entrance. Completion of this maintenance work will be evaluated during the November 2005 inspection. Processing Waste The waste pile showed no evidence of structural instability. The pile appears to have been recently graded to maintain a positive drainage gradient off the top of the pile, ]azgely eliminating the small flat spot observed during the previous inspection. The only flat spot observed during this inspection is within the immediate equipment entrance area along the edge of the pile. Although this small area does not appear to pose a problem in terms of maintaining adequate structural stability, the equipment operators at the mine need to be reminded on a regular basis that all portions of the pile surface need to be graded to a positive drainage gradient immediately after material placement.