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<br />-14- <br />XVIII. BackfiZl and Grading <br />The Colorado Coal Mine No. 1 will strip mine coal remaining an an area <br />which has previously been extensively mined by numerous underground mines. <br />The old coal mines in the Lennox and Cameron seams contain grossly polluted <br />ground water. Old coal refuse piles also are essentially devoid of <br />vegetative cover. These two results of underground coal mining indicate <br />that the coals and their associated roof and floor strata contain toxic <br />elements. Rlso the overburden analyses submitted by the operator indicate <br />that the Lower strata are more toxic than the upper strata. <br />The Colorado Coal Mine No. I will be a truck and shovel operation. .Such <br />an operation results in the inversion of the overburden strata (i.e. <br />upper strata are placed in the backfilled pit first and covered by underlying <br />strata). This type of mining will rerro ve the toxic strata from the area <br />which will be saturated with ground water. Thus the resulting spoil water <br />quality will be improved over existing ground water quality. The mining <br />operation will also extract toxic croaZ stratus, thus improving the quality <br />of ground water. *Coal processing wastes will be placed in the upper <br />portions of the backfill and then covered with four Feet of non-toxic <br />soil and overburden. This handling of the coal processing wastes will <br />minimize the exposure of potentially toxic wastes to both ground water <br />and root zones of plants. Y'he only area, where the overburden from the <br />mining operation could potentially impact the quality of ground water, is <br />the backfilled final cut. *Toxic strata will be placed outside the ground <br />water table and covered with a minimum of four feet of cover. <br />*(These findings are subject to a selective placement plan for the coal <br />processing waste and backfill of the final cut.) <br />