Laserfiche WebLink
<br />• Excess Spoil and Backfilling and Crading <br />Energy Fuels will stockpile overburden material not needed for restoring the <br />land to approximate original contour in two excess spoils piles. These spoils <br />piles will be located adjacent to the principal mining locations in Eckman <br />Park and will be vegetated to support grazing. No special handling of the <br />spoil is required because no acid- or toxic forming materials are present. <br />Rough backfilling and grading will begin 180 days after coal recovery. <br />After coal is recovered from the pit floor, overburden stripping will resume <br />and this spoils material will be cast into the cut (backfilled) where coal and <br />overburden have already been removed. The company will backfill and grade <br />this material with dozers and scrapers to the approximate original contour. <br />(Postmining topography will exceed original elevations slightly.) Following <br />this, the company will replace topsoil and revegetate. <br />Energy Fuels has requested OSM approval for three exceptions to normal <br />backfilling and grading operations. The first exception would increase coal <br />recovery at the northeastern end of the 8050 pit by enabling the operation to <br />move closer to a minor drainage channel, but it would place the open box cut <br />at the northwestern end out of reach for backfilling until 1982 or 1983 (not <br />considered a significant problem). The second exception would allow Energy <br />• Fuels to leave a portion of the 7400 pit open for approximately 1 year, until <br />mining resumes in that area in October 1980. This would prevent additional <br />environmental damage caused by backfilling the 7400 pit and then opening <br />another box cut in 6 months. The third exception would allow Energy Fuels to <br />leave a portion of the highwall open to permit underground mining at some <br />later date to maximize recovery of the coal resources. OSM is requiring <br />Energy Fuels to submit a plan to meet the requirements of 30 CFR 785.18 for <br />joint surface and underground mining by December 31, 1980, or the company must <br />backfill and grade the highwall area by January 31, 1981, to meet the <br />requirements of 30 CFR 816.100 for contemporaneous reclamation. <br />Energy Fuels' plan for constructing two excess spoil piles is an acceptable <br />alternative to redistributing this material because, if it were redistributed, <br />the approximate original contours of stream channels would be exceeded, and <br />oversteepening and subsequent erosion and sedimentation would result. Most of <br />the environmental impacts of the two excess spoils piles will be short term <br />and of a minor nature through 1982. At this time, construction of the piles <br />will be completed and revegetation will begin. Because permanent diversions <br />will be constructed to divert existing stream channels around the excess <br />spoils piles, there will be a minor long-term impact resulting from <br />lengthening the channels and decreasing the gradient. This would result is <br />some siltation of the diversions. The impacts from backfilling and grading <br />should also be short term In the interim, the principal impact will be <br />exposure to erosional forces that should be controlled by drainage structures <br />and a sedimentation pond. <br /> <br />• <br />- 13 - <br />