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~~ ~ III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Mountain Coal Company West Elk Mine Post Office Box 591 Somerset, Colorado 81434 Telephone 970-92&5015 February 19, 1997 Ms. Kathleen Sullivan Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment /\ ;~~~~ p31997 ~i„IS n u, _,~n~~a~s u ~,~wogy Water Quality Control Division, Enforvement and Compliance Section 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South. B-2 Denver, CO 80220-1530 Re: Mountain Coal Company, West Elk Mine, CDPS Permit No. CO-0038776, Mine Water Inflow from 1st Southeast Headgate Section, Direct Discharge Reporting Dear Ms. Sullivan: The purpose of this letter is to report the relevant water quality data to the Division from the above mentioned direct discharge. Enclosed are the discharge data for the direct discharge to the emergency spillway of sediment pond MB-I (Discharge Point 002). This information was requested by the Division in your letter dated January 28, 1997, addressed to Mountain Coal Company. Included aze the Whole Effluent Toxicity tests (WET tests) for the direct discharge at the end of the pipe from the mine, downstream in the spillway prior to any influence with the discharges from either the freshwater pond (FW-i) and MB-I (002) discharges, downstream in the spillway after mixing with FW-I and MB- I (002), MB-2R (004), and upstream/downstream of the North Fork of the Gunnison River (North Fork). The information includes the temperature of the discharged water as well as temperatures of the water in the North Fork both upstream and downstream, and immediately upstream and downstream of the MB-1 spillway as it discharged into the North Fork. Water quality analyses of the discharge show that no pazameters were exceeded during the time of discharge. Wet tests for the direct discharge showed some affect to Daphnia magna at the end of pipe and less affect downstream and no affect by the time the water discharged to the North Fork. No affect was seen in the daphnid populations when the fault water passed through the sediment ponds at either MB-1 (002) or iv1B-2R (004). The fathead minnow population was not affected. The direct discharge began January 29, 1997 at 10:30 a.m., and continued until February 7, 1997, at 11:30a.m. MCC stopped the direct discharge when the contract laboratory informed MCC of a potential affect to the Daphnia magna populations. Total flow was measured by flowmeters and the discharge to the spillway was 11,733,810 gallons or 36.0 acre-feet. Flows of the North Fork