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v . ~..r it, ;.. ,'~ .,~. PAGE 2 labor dispute and wet conditions interrupted the remedial work. UMWA workers staged a three-day work stoppage over the August 5-7 weekend that prevented the problems from being remedied before the arrival of DMG inspectors. Moreover, as you know, it has been a wet summer, and the unusual frequency and intensity of storm events throughout the summer produced conditions which further slowed implementation of permanent remedies. During the remedial work conducted by Basin, DMG conducted the August 10-12 inapec.tion of the New Elk Mine and issued the three tdOVs based an _ t?±~s . part=.aily cosglet.= r.emed_e.] rr~r.1-. A.r.3in personnel were able to complete all remedial work shortly after DMG left the Mine site, and well within the abatement period established in the NOVS. Because Basin responded quickly to the problems caused by the August 3 storm event, it was able to minimize any resultant damage. Damage thus was minimal in terms of duration, geographical area, and extent. Based on the foregoing discussion, Basin believes that the three NOVs need to be evaluated in light o£ the circumstances that occurred. Basin further believes that its prompt and comprehensive response to the problems identified in the NOVS, combined with its total lack of fault for these conditions, need to be considered during your assessment process. The following sections further discuss facts specific to *_he problems cited in each NOV. NOV C-94-018: Failure to Pass Disturbed Area Drainage Through a Sediment Pond. SERIOUSNESS: The areas in which disturbed area drainage was discharged without treatment were limited to those areas where designed Gtructure.s failad du.e to the exceedance of the designed precipitation event. Ditches and berms were o~•srtvpped, cuiz•e~t~a were plugged, and the intensity of the rain caused excessive runoff to plug and fill structures. Normal rainfall events, or even a 10 year/24 hour event, would not have caused the structures to fail as they did. The probability of this occurring is extremely low. Moreover, as discussed below, the duration and extent of the damage for each area identified is also low. 1) The runoff from the west portion of the western coal pile involved a small portion of the road, coal storage area, and material storage area. The extent of this area. is approximately 0.4 acres. A partial repair wh.ir_h prevented further discharge was done by August 12 with the complete repair of the berm and ditch completed August 21.