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West Elk Mine <br />Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan <br />POTENTIAL STORM WATER DISCHARGE AREAS <br />The surface facilities include paved and unpaved roadways, coal storage aeeas, coal <br />handling and loading facilities, coal refuse stockpile, rail loading and haulage facilities, <br />equipment maintenance shops, warehouse, fuel storage and filling stations, bathhouse, <br />water and sewage treatment facilities, and office buildings. Activities related to these <br />facilities include employee and public access to the work site, movement of mining <br />equipment around the site, repair and maintenance of mining equipment, transfer of coal <br />from the mine portal through the storage and load out facilities, transfer of coal refuse <br />material from the mine to the refuse pile, treatment of surface water and sewage, storage <br />and use of fuels, storage and use of mining related materials in the warehouse facility, and <br />general mine administration activities. <br />The facility is operated under Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) Permit <br />Number C-80-007. All runoff from the site passes through approved sedimentation <br />ponds, with the exception of Small Area Exemptions for the Sylvester Gulch Fan and a <br />small soil stockpile area in the Sylvester Gulch area. Only an extremely small portion of <br />the rail and access road areas is not covered either by sedimentation control ponds or the <br />Small Area Exemption provisions. Material storage does not occur on these <br />"uncontrolled" areas, and the amount of materials used is very minimal. There are no <br />potential pollutant sources which are realistically expected to add significant amounts of <br />pollutants to storm water discharges. <br />Incidental pollution associated with runoff from access roads or rail lines constitutes the <br />only risk of storm water pollution. Small amounts of oil, grease, fuel, lubricants, metals <br />and other compounds from vehicles which use the access roadways may be conveyed to <br />the adjacent road ditches and drainage ways during time of runoff. Trains use the load out <br />facility and can be expected to leave some lubricants, fuels, or spilled coal on the railroad <br />ballast or directly adjacent to the railroad tracks. In addition, the asphalt roadways and <br />railroad ties are expected to have limited contributions of asphalt-based materials and <br />wood preservative chemicals, respectively. Some hydraulic oil that is spilled from leaks at <br />the train load out facility may become mixed with spilled coal during area cleanups. (This <br />volume is expected to be minimal, however and the majority of the surface area that could <br />contain this material drains to a permitted CPDES surface pond.) <br />The potential for pollution from a vehicle accident or train derailment, particularly at the <br />same time that measurable runoff is occurring, is extremely small and emergency situations <br />are addressed in the Spill Control and Countermeasure Plan. <br />The probability of any pollutants being transported a significant distance is low because <br />the primary mechanisms for limiting pollutant mobility will be effective in this setting, <br />including filtration, absorption, ion exchange, precipitation/complexation, interaction with <br />