ENFORCE20708

• Permit No: C1996083
• IBM Index Class Name: Enforcement
• Doc Date: 2/22/2005
• Doc Name: Requesting Assistance for Calculation of proposed civil penalty ‎(Memo)‎
• From: Joe Dudash
• To: Dan Hernandez
• Violation No.: CV2005002
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

STATE OF COLORADO
DIVISION OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGY
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman St., Room 215
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
DATE: February 22, 2005
TO: / Dan Hernandez
COLORADO
DIVISION OF
MINERALS
GEOLOGY
RECLAMATION•MINING
SAFETT•SCIENCE
Bill Owens
n Governor
FROM: Joe Dudash
Russell George
Executive Director
RE: Bowie No. 2 ne, Permit No. C-96-083, Bowie Resources LLC
Ronald W. Cattany
NOV CV-2005-002, Proposed Civil Penalty Assessment Division Director
Natural Resource Trustee
am requesting your assistance in the calculation of the proposed civil penalty for Notice of Violation (NOV)
CV-2005-002 for the Bowie No. 2 Mine. NOV CV-2005-002 was issued on February I, 2005 for failure to
submit a geotechnical analysis that demonstrated that the coal waste that has been and will be placed onto coal
waste pile no. 2 has a factor of safety of at least 1.5. The geotechnical analysis was to be based on site specific
characteristics and strength parameters from the coal waste already placed on the coal waste pile no. 2.
Coal waste pile no. 2 was proposed by Bowie Resources LLC (BRL) in Technical Revision No. 30 (TR-30) to
receive coal waste from the wash plant. BRL intended to mix subsoil with the coal waste on an as-needed basis
in order to dry out any overly wet coal waste. The operator had strength parameters for the subsoil. However,
since the wash plant was still under construction when TR-30 was approved, Bowie Resources LLC (BRL) did
not have strength parameters for the coal waste from the wash plant. In order to dispose of the wash plant coal
waste, BRL needed to complete the preparation work for the coal waste pile no. 2 before the wash plant
construction was completed. Therefore, the Division attached Stipulation No. 16 to the approval for TR-30:
THE OPERATOR W[LL DETERMINE SITE-SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS (MOIST UNIT
WEIGHT) AND STRENGTH PARAMETERS OF COHESION AND ANGLE OF INTERNAL
FRICTION OF COAL PROCESSING WASTE MATERIALS WHEN THE FIRST BENCH OF THE
GOB PILE NO. 2 REACHES HALF TO THREE/FOURTHS THE DESIGN HEIGHT, AND
DEMONSTRATE TO THE DIVISION THAT THE PROPOSED FILL, AS APPROVED, WILL BE
STABLE WITH A MINIMUM FACTOR OF SAFETY OF 1.5
BRL submitted a geotechnical report for the coal waste pile no. 2 in Technical Revision No. 36. However, upon
review, the Division determined that the geotechnical report did not fully address the requirements of Stipulation
No. l6. The geotechnical report demonstrated the factors of safety for several different ratios of subsoil to coal
waste mixes, but the operator did not analyze the factor of safety for the coal waste and subsoil mix that had
already and would be placed on the coal waste pile.
An additional requirement of Stipulation No. 16 was that the geotechnical report be submitted to the Division by
the time the first coal waste pile bench reached one half to three fourths of the design height. When the Division
wrote this requirement into Stipulation No. 16, the Division assumed that the entire first bench of the coal waste
pile would be completed before the second bench was begun.
However, because there was a lot of coal waste being generated from the wash plant, and because the west side
of the coal waste pile needed more excavation preparation work than did the east side of the coal waste pile,
BRL placed more coal waste on the east side of the coal waste pile than on the west side. At the time of the
submittal of the geotechnical report in TR-36, the coal waste pile no. 2 had reached part way up the second
bench on the east side while the first bench on the west side had just gotten started. The Division decided that,
since the east side of the pile was beyond the trigger point stated in Stipulation No. 16 for the submittal of the
geotechnical report, and that it would take the operator approximately an additional month to submit the
required geotechnical report, a Notice of Violation should be issued.
Office of Office of Colorado
Mined Land Reclamation Active and Inactive Mines Geological Survey