GENERAL30034 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Dave Berry December 9, 1997 Page 2 4. Please summarize the Bear Mine's experience with subsurface coal burns and elevated carbon monoxide, from when mining began to the present. Has it been necessary to shut down mining operations due to elevated carbon monoxide levels? If yes, please provide details. To your knowledge, where are there coal burns in and adjacent to the Bear Mine? 5. Please describe your excavation activities along the toe of the landslide. By "excavation," we refer not only to the removal of natural material but also to the removal of coal that may have been piled along the toe of the slope. 6. Please describe the history of slope instability at the Bear Mine in the general vicinity of your mine during your years of operation. Note that the current landslide encompasses three raveling slopes (that are influenced by undermining due to erosion by the North Fork) and two upper landslides. All of these features are readily apparent in the field and via inspection of aerial photographs. What are your observations of how these five features have changed over time? 7. MCC would appreciate the opportunity to review engineering and geologic studies which the Bear Mine has conducted that focus on how Bear B-Seam and C-Seam mining has impacted slope stability. Please describe the geologic and engineering analysis of the current landslide that you have conducted to date. 9. Please provide any and all of your B-Seam permeability and secondary porosity data. Mr. Stover, on behalf of Bear, has suggested that there may be high secondary porosity in the unmined coal block between the MCC Northwest (NW) Panel sealed sump and the Bear Mine. MCC would appreciate receiving any data the Mr. Slover has in this regard. 10. Given that the 1995 and 1996 Bear Mine Annual Hydrology Reports (AHRs) describe water inflows to the B-Seam, we presume that it was necessary for the Bear Mine to evaluate how this water would impact slope stability. To answer this question, you would presumably need to determine how the mine inflows move through the mine, where they accumulate on the north side of the mine and, ultimately, where and how the water would discharge. MCC is quite interested in learning the details of your evaluation of this kind. Would you expect the Edwards Mine to represent an outfall for the Bear Mine water? 11. When mine inflows were noticed at the Third West Seal in June 1995, did Bear Coal Company sample these unprecedented inflows for either field parameters or lab analysis? Please provide mining records, notes, photos or other information documenting and recording these inflows.