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d <br />III. COI~J_MENTS -COMPLIANCE <br />Below are comments on the inspection. The comments include discussion of observations made <br />during the inspection. Comments also describe any enforcement actions taken during the inspection <br />and the facts or evidence supporting the enforcement action. <br />A partial minesite inspection was conducted the aftemoon of November 19, 2001, accompanied by Jim <br />Stover and Tonya Hammond, representing PCC. A follow-up inspection was conducted the aftemoon of <br />November 20, 2001, with no operator contact present. The focus of the inspection both days was on Pond <br />12 and adjacent areas at the North Portal Facilities, and the drilling operation at the recently approved mine <br />de-watering location near the Notch Decline reclaimed area NOV CV-2001-017 was issued for "failure to <br />conswct and maintain Minewater Treatment Pond 12 as necessary to ensure integrity and stability of pond <br />embanl®ent and foundatioq and to ensure adequate containment end treatment of inflow from <br />underground mine". The NOV was issued on November 21, 2001, based on observations made during the <br />inspection. Weather both days was clear and mild, with na recent precipitation. In addition to observations <br />described below, it was noted that demolition and salvage operations at the North Portal Facility area and <br />along the conveyor corridor were continuing, and that there had been recent grading and gully repair along <br />and adjacent to Terrace Drain #4, on CRDA-1. There had been no further reclamation grading work at <br />CRDA-2 since the previous inspection. Tonya Hammond indicated that a contract for the CRDA final <br />reclamation earthwork which is to be completed by the end of P quarter, 2002, had not yet been awarded. <br />When I arrived at work Monday morning, November 19, I had a phone message from JimStover regarding <br />a problem at the Roadside Mine. I called Mr. Stover and he explained that, over the weekend, the drilling <br />project had been making more water then anticipated, and water liad been hauled from the project site in <br />vacuum trucks and dumped inMinewater Pond 12. But the pond had not held water, and it had been <br />discovered that cracks along the base of the embankment had allowed water to escape the pond into the <br />adjacent Coal Creek channel. I arranged to meet Mr. Stover and Tonya Hammond at I:30 that aftemoon. <br />I met the operator representatives at 1:30 p.m. as scheduled, at Pond 12. The pond no longer contained <br />water, but was muddy where water hadponded along the base of the embanl~ent. There were four cracks <br />appazent along the inside base of the embankment, within an approximate80 foot section along the center <br />portion of the embanl~ent. The cracks ranged from approximately 4 feet to 10 feet in length, and up to 6 <br />to 8 inches wide, with some conning parallel and others perpendiculaz to the embankrment. The cracks <br />appazently provided a conduit to a flow path through fill material beneath the embanlmtent. Water piped <br />through the fill for approximately I50 feet, paralleling Coal Creek in a downstream (southeasterly) <br />direction, and ultimately surfaced approximately 30 feet beyond the southeast comer ofPond 12, <br />approximately 5 or 6 vertical feet above the bottom of the Coal Creek channel. There appeared to have <br />been a primary point of discharge, and a lesser point of discharge, approximately 15 feet apart. The main <br />discharge had scoured a gully approximately 4 feet deepby 1 foot wide, about four feet in length down to <br />the channel bottom. Based on the water mazks downstream in the channel from the points of discharge, <br />flow in the channel due to the piping event had been approximately I O feet wide at the top by 4 to 6 inches <br />deep. <br />The operator made arrangements to have the pond bottom in the vicinity of the cracks excavated and the <br />cracks filled in, as a remedial measure to prevent any precipitation in the immediate pond azea from <br />entering the cracks. This work had been completed prior to my follow-up inspection at 2:30 p.m., on <br />November 20. <br />Mr. Stover indicated that he had obtained two samples of the pond discharge on Sunday morning, <br />November 18. I asked that he forward the analytical results to DMG as soon as they aze available. The <br />sequence of events as related to me by the operator began on Friday morning, November 16, during drilling <br />of a small diameter pilot hole into the mine workings at the approved drill site location. As the pilot hole <br />