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SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT JUSTIFICATION NOV C-94-018 Notice of Violation C-94-018 was issued for "Failure to pass disturbed area drainage through a sediment pond or treatment facility". Joe Dudash issued the NOV to Basin Resources, Inc. on August 12, 1994 at the New Elk Mine. Mr. Dudash described four areas of the mine that were in violation. They were: 1) The western portion of western most coal stockpile. A road berm had been constructed which directed disturbed area drainage to a clean water ditch instead of through the intended mine ditch and into the pond. There was no evidence of damage. 2) There was approximately ~ cubic foot of coal on the south bank of the Purgatoire River, north of the prep plant beneath the conveyor belt. A box structure built to catch coal fines had split at the seams allowing some fines to escape. This was repaired by the end of the inspection. 3) A small area east of the coal silo was not graded properly allowing drainage to go offsite. There was evidence of a small amount of offsite flow, along the railroad tracks, although there was no flow at the time of the inspection. The operator installed some hay bales to prevent water from going off-site. 4) Water had displaced some of the rocks in the reno mattress on the west side of the refuse disposal area (RDA). There was evidence that water had flowed off site and into the ditch along State Highway 12. This had been repaired. Mr. Ralph Lopez, representing Basin Resources Inc., contested the fact of the violation. He stated that a storm, greater than the 10-year, 24-hour storm event, had occurred on the mine site August 3, 1994. As required by the Regulations all the structures were designed and built to handle flow from a l0-year, 24-hour event, except for the reno mattress which was designed for the 100-year event. The normal summer precipitation is 2.2" at the New Elk Mine. On August 3, 1994, 2.99" of rain fell, 2.6" of which fell in a four hour period. The 10-year, 24-hour event is 2.9". To compound matters, 3-4" of rain fell in July so the sediment control system had already been heavily used and was undergoing maintenance. The intense, rapid rain on August 3 contributed to each of the problems. Mr. Lopez went on to describe the extent of damage caused by the failure of these structures. At the coal stockpile, 0.4 acres would have gone untreated. At the second area, 0.003 acres were disturbed by the coal fines that seeped under and through the