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2.04.3 General Requirements: Site Description and Land Use <br />• Information <br />The location of the existing land uses within the permit area and <br />adjacent areas for the Bear Coal Company can be found on the Pre-Mining <br />and Post-Mining Land Use Map (Map 8). Although most of the area along <br />the North Fork of the Gunnison near Somerset, Colorado has been used as <br />the surface facility for underground mines the present basic land use <br />within the entire area is undeveloped land. Some amount of land within <br />the area to be used for surface support facilities for the Bear No. 3 <br />Portals and land adjacent to the permit area is used as residential <br />area. Two vacant houses and several small storage sheds are located <br />within the planned facility area. Bear Coal Company will be utilizing <br />these structures as office space when the operations commence. They <br />will be left following mining, provided there is still a beneficial use <br />for them. The small town of Somerset, Colorado is located adjacent to <br />the planned support facilities of the Bear Coal Company. <br />• The land use designations in the permit area and adjacent areas are <br />confirmed by the Gunnison County Land Use Map which was prepared by the <br />Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. <br />As stated above, another use is found on areas within the proposed <br />permit boundary, yet it has not been included in land use categories as <br />defined under existing Colorado Regulations for coal mining. This land <br />use is "mined-land" and is one of the current land uses within the <br />permit boundary and adjacent areas. This land use results from the fact <br />that the permit area covers both undisturbed land and lands which have <br />been or are presently being subject to underground coal mining <br />operations and the disturbance associated with surface facilities for <br />those operations. In as much as possible, the Bear Coal Company will <br />treat these lands within the meaning of undisturbed lands and therefore <br />will attempt to analyze the pre-mining land use accordingly. A <br />complete history of all the previous and current underground mining <br />. operations and their extent is found under Part 2.04.4, Cultural and <br />Historical Resource Information. <br />2.04-2 <br />