APPCOR10646 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

-3- Climatological Information and Air Resources Protection - ,~z-z7r 1. The applicant should submit information on the average velocity of the prevailing wind. Soils Resource Information - Rule 2.04.9 It is stated in the reclamation plan for the refuse disposal area that Storm King will establish test plots to determine how much soil cover will be required to attain successful revegetation. It will require a minimum of ten years before the information collected from the research plots can be considered conclusive since the minimum time period for complete bond release is ten years. In the interim Storm King will be required to salvage sufficient material to meet the four feet of non-toxic, non-combustible cover requirement. Presently, the topsoil salvage plan includes removing an average of 19 inches of topsoil. In addition, Storm King states that one-foot of ballast from the railroad and coarse material from the dam construction will be available. This leaves a deficit of 17 inches of material. It appears that the figure of an average of 19 inches of topsoil to be salvaged is, for the entire life of the mine. In order for the Division to make the required findings for this five year term, Storm King must submit information on how much topsoil will be salvaged. This information should take the form of a topsoil balance sheet showing how much of each soil type is planned to be disturbed each year (or in each phase of the mining operation) how much topsoil will be salvaged, and how much topsoil will be directly replaced. From this table, the amount of additional material required to meet the requirement for four feet of cover for each year or mining phase can be determined. Storm King must update the plan to show where this additional material will be salvaged from and where the material will be stockpiled. The source(s) of the additional material must be sampled and analyses submitted to the Division if this material is planned to be salvaged from a source other than those soil series already sampled or from a depth greater than was sampled in the baseline inventory. The required analyses would be the same as for the soil sampling program. One item that should also be factored into the plan for salvaging additional material to meet the four feet cover requirement is that during the initial development phase, before the railroad loop is constructed, no ballast material would be available to place on the refuse pile. The bottom line to the above discussion is that Storm King must have four feet of the best available non-toxic, non-combustible material available for reclamation .of the refuse pile at all times until it is proven that less cover is required to meet revegetation success standards.