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3 INSPECTION REPORT 9. ash disposal on the mine is addressed in their permit but there is no comment in the approval about minimizing the amount of time surface water comes in contact with the ash. In the "A^ pit, an acre foot or more of standing water was noted in contact with the ash. Mr. Jesser said they were not required to minimize surface water contact time with ash but would consider making changes in their disposal of ash in the "B" pit. The mine permit has recently been renewed and in doing so it has been changed to a reclamation only permit. Several years a go, the company had a large permitted stockpile of coal on the ground around their storage facility. That has been removed and burned, there is no coal in the tipple or open in the pit. The "A" pit, the first to be opened on the property, has been backfilled to ash grade. Ash from the coal powered generation plant at the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado is being hauled to the~mine for disposal in the pits. The "A" pit, the first pit to be opened on the property, has been backfilled with spoil to the "ash grade level" which is 5 feet above the premine ground water level. Plans are tentatively drawn up for the pit to be backfilled completely in '93. The "B" pit is being backfilled with spoil from the out of pit spoil storage area. Approximately 540,000 yards of material will have to be brought back into the pit to bring it back up to "ash grade". There was some discussion about filling in the "A" pit sooner if the company decides to move the ash disposal from the royality charge state property to the mine owned property where "B" pit is located. That is not final. There was also a comment about there being an excess of spoil for backfilling so the reclamation permit will have to be modified to allow the excess spoil disposal. Mine waste and community waste was buried in the west end of "A" pit in the past. Community waste is no longer accepted at the mine for disposal. What mine waste there is is put into the access ramp being reclaimed on the north end of "B" pit. Access into the mine is locked during the night to prevent illegal dumping. Ash being hauled onto the mine is at times deposited in an approved temporary holding site until the roads on the mine could be used by the haulers. Apparently the ash trucks are sometimes hard to drive through the mine disposal area when roads on the mine are wet. The temporary storage area, the inside of the turn-around loop for the loadout, did not have any ash stored there during the inspection. I questioned Mr. Jesser about the approval. I wanted to know if there is a limit on the time of storage and if they have to supress dust. I also asked if they have an air emmissions permit with monitoring requirements for the mine, He said that there is a 7 day holding period limit for that area and a 700 hundred ton cap. There is no monitoring for dust at this time. He did say however, that they took the initiative to install a sprinkling system to keep fugitive dust to a minimum. A sprinkler and water line was noted near the top of the loop.