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West Elk Mine <br />2.06.7 Variances for Delay in Contemporaneous Reclamation <br />~ Requirements in Combined Surface and Underground <br />Mining Operations <br />Because the West Elk Mine is an underground mine, reclamation of surface facilities will not be <br />completed until mine closure. The Refuse Pile Expansion refuse disposal area will be <br />contemporaneously reclaimed as the various phases are completed. The Lower Refuse Pile will <br />be used as a storage area until it can be built to the final (heaped) configuration and reclaimed. <br />As such, a waiver or vaziance for delay in contemporaneous reclamation is required for fhe <br />Lower Refuse Pile. <br />2.06.8 Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Operations.on <br />Areas, or Adjacent to Areas, Including Alluvial Valley <br />Floors <br />A reconnaissance investigation for Alluvial Valley Floor (AVF) assessment was performed in <br />accordance with State and OSM Regulations and following, to the extent possible, OSM <br />Technical Guidance Paper. <br />According to Title 34, Colorado Revised Statutes 1973, Article 33, Section 34-33-103(2), <br />,'Alluvial Valley Floors' means the unconsolidated stream-laid deposits holding streams where <br />water availability is sufficient for subirrigation or flood irrigation agricultural activities but does <br />not include upland areas which are generally overlain by a thin veneer of colluvial deposits <br />composed chiefly of debris from sheet erosion, deposits by unconcentrated runoff or slope wash, _ <br />together with talus, other mass movement accumulation, and windblown deposits.- <br />Rule 1.04.10 of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board's Regulations for Coal Minin¢ <br />reads, "Alluvial Valley Floors' means the unconsolidated stream-laid deposits holding streams <br />with water availability sufficient for subirrigation or flood irrigation agricultural activities but <br />does not include upland areas which are generally overlain by a thin veneer of colluvial deposits <br />composed chiefly of debris from sheet erosion, deposits formed by unconcentrated runoff or <br />slope wash, together with talus, other mass movement accumulations, and windblown deposits. <br />The same regulations go on to state, at Rule 1.04.147, that ;'Upland Areas' means, with respect <br />to Alluvial Valley Floors, those geomorphic features located outside the flood plain and terrace <br />complex, such as isolated higher terraces, alluvial fans, pediment surfaces, landslide deposits, <br />and surfaces covered with residuum, mud flows or debris flows, as well as highland aeeas <br />underlain by bedrock and covered by residual weathered material or material deposited by sheet <br />wash, rillwash, or wind. <br />Public Law 95-87 states, in Section 701.1, that .,,'Alluvial Valley Floors' means the unconsolidated <br />stream-laided deposits holding streams where water availability is sufficient for subirrigation or flood <br />irrigation agricultural activities but does not include upland areas which are generally overlain <br />2.06-2 <br />5/1/03 MR-294 <br />/,7 <br />