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• <br />Mountain Coal Company Exhibit 27 <br />West Elk Mine Characteristics of West Elk Mine Soil Mapping Units <br />Chemical Properties and General Fertility - Chemically these soils are not abnormal. <br />Organic matter content is higher than normal in the surface horizon due to the absence <br />of good aeration essential to bacteriological breakdown. <br />These soils are neutral to mildly alkaline and they do not have detrimental accumulations <br />of sodium or other soluble salts. <br />Soils of mapping unit number 20 are below normal for the area in general fertility, but <br />thts is due to their poor drainage and aeration rather than any limiting deficiency of <br />available nu[rients. Nitrogen levels are probably low at the wetter seasons of the year. <br />Mapping Unit Number X_'S -Moderately deep (20 to 40 inches to bedrock) and deep <br />(more than 40 inches to bedrock), dark colored, moderately coarse textured soils (less <br />than 18 percent clay but finer than loamy sands). having soil horizonation limited to dark <br />surface horizons (A horizons) and occurring in parts of the study area where the mean <br />summer soil temperature (June, July, and August mean temperature measured at 20 <br />inches) is colder than 59°F. <br />• <br />Classification of Major Components -The components listed below comprise the major <br />part of the mapping unit: <br />A. Typic Cryoborolls (Chernozem). <br />1. Coarse-loamy, mixed. <br />(Burnt Lake Series) <br />(Sawcreek Series) <br />B. Pachic Cryoborolls (Chernozem). <br />1. Coarse-loamy, mixed. <br />(Skyway Series) <br />Extent and Major Areas of Occurrence -Mapping unit number X25 occurs in moderate <br />acreage in the study area and is found in greatest acreage in the eastern and central parts <br />at elevations above 7,800 feet. <br />• <br />Characteristic Topography - These soils occur in areas where the semi-consolidated <br />sandstones of the underlying geologic beds occur close enough to the surface of the <br />ground to have been the major contribu[ors to the weathered earthy regolith. <br />Consequently, the soils of mapping unit number X25 generally occur on gently sloping <br />to moderately rolling ridges and mesa-like areas that are underlain by sandstone. <br />Occasionally they may occur on alluvial fans and alluvial-colluvial sideslopes below <br />outcrops of sandstone. Slopes range from about two to 25 percent in most areas. <br />Exhibit 27-16 <br />