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COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, Water Quality Control Division Rationale - Page 3. Permit No. CO-0032115. IV. FACILITY DESCRIPTION A. Industry Description The facility is a surface sub-bituminous coal mine. There are three active pits, from which coal is mined and then hauled directly to the adjacent Craig Generating Station. All coal produced is sold to Colorado-Ute, which owns the station. The average production rate is 2.2 million tons/year, with a maximum rate of 2.6 million tons/year. The facility is covered under federal regulation 40 CFR 434, the Coal Mining Point Source Category, Subpart D, Alkaline Mine Drainage, and Subpart F, Miscellaneous Provisions, Effluent Limitations for Precipitation Events. B. Wastewater Treatment Description Treatment is provided for all of the wastewater sources by sediment ponds. The wastewater sources are surface runoff, surface mine dewatering, spoil springs, and an industrial waste pond. This waste pond receives runoff from the truck fueling area and the shop area, wastewater from the truck washing facility, and can be used to contain fuel spills from tanks. No chemicals are used for the truck washing. The pond provides settling, and two oil booms are in place near the outfall to remove oil and grease. Two concrete underground oil l separator tanks are also provided after the pond outfall. The effluent then goes through a sediment pond before discharging at 002. Discharge points 012, 013 and 014 are proposed but not yet constructed. The permittee plans to construct them in middle to late 1991. In order to avoid a permit amendment when the points are put into active use, they are included in the permit renewal. (The permittee must therefore submit discharge monitoring reports for these points whether they are active or not.) For discharge points 001, 005 and 011, the parshall flume for flow monitoring is located downstream of the sediment pond overflow. AC 001, this situation will be changed in the summer of 1991, when the final pond is rebuilt and [he flume incorporated into the pond overflow. At 011, the flume is 50 feet downstream, but the pond has never discharged, and so no change is considered necessary. At 005, the flume is also about 50 feet downstream. There are seeps in between the pond and the flume, and so flow could be measured at the flume while no discharge is occurring from the pond. However, the pond only discharges when the headgates are opened, which is done during spring runoff and during large storm events, and so the only problem anticipated in flow monitoring is in the accuracy of the readings. Therefore, the permittee will be required to submit all data collected on the seep flow volumes at 005 and 011, on an on-going basis to be submitted with their Discharge Monitoring Reports (see l Part I.B.2 of the permit). „i ,~ . .~: ;.: , r;i:. ~,F`; L=M _'~ , ~.i ~; iH {• K