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Tweprymi(e Coal Company - Poide! Creek Mine, TR04-44 TA Responses 8/r2/2004 Item 43. Page 2.05-45.4, line 31. During a telephone conversation, the Division was informed that collection pit excavated materials were to be hauled offsite. The Division recognizes the material excavated to form the holding pit for cuttings, and the materials excavated and cuttings in development of the shaft, to be "underground development waste " [Rule 1.04(143)J, one form of "coal mine waste " [Rule 1.04(22a)J. Coal mine wastes are required to be transported and placed in disposal areas approved by the Division, and shall be located within the permit area [Rule 4.10.1(1)J. The storage or disposal of the pit-excavated materials must be in compliance with the requirements of Rule 4.10. The storage of shaft cuttings in a pit must also be in compliance with Rule 4.10 (demonstrated in the application). The shaft cuttings, and perhaps some of the holding pit excavated materials, will be required to fill the shaft, and to fill the pit up to approximate original contour. As such, you may want to locate the excavated pit materials storage nearby. If integral to the shaft site, this storage area would become part of the disturbed area, and the area might exceed the size appropriate to a Small Area Exemption, thus requiring submittal of a sediment pond design. In any event, provisions need to be approved for permanent disposal of coal mine waste in excess of backfill requirements. An option would be to place any excess materials in the currently approved coal mine waste bank near the main tipple. Please amend this section accordingly. Response: The cuttings collection pit will be excavated in surficial~materials before any shaft work begins and the associated excavated material would be no different than the material excavated for construction of a sedimentation pond (ie: not "coal mine waste"). TCC plans to load and haul this limited volume (approximately 7,400 cy) of excavated material from the pad site to the nearby Fish Creek Loadout area for use in backfilling and grading the Fish Creek Loadout next spring, as part of final reclamation efforts. Other materials to be excavated during construction of the 18 Right Ventilation Shaft include surficial and near-surface materials excavated from the surface to install the shaft collar and cuttings from shaft drilling and reaming operations. Materials from the shaft collar excavation are not expected to contain any coally or carbonaceous materials and will be placed on the perimeter of the cuttings collection pit. The cuttings collection pit will be lined with aloes-permeability synthetic liner and all cuttings from both shaft drilling and reaming operations will be placed in the lined pit for long-term storage. A portion of shaft collar excavation material will be used as temporary cover for the cuttings materials once they dry-out, and the cover material will be seeded with the temporary seed mixture to minimize the potential for erosion. When the ventilation shaft is no longer needed to support ongoing or future mining operations, the stored cuttings and collar excavation materials will be used to backfill the shaft. The lined cuttings collection pit has been designed and will be constructed and maintained to assure compliance with applicable provisions of Rule 4.10. As appropriate, text and maps have been revised to reflect these material handling and disposal plans.