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<br />mined out pit. Dozers and graders then smooth the spoil ridges and blend them <br />into the existing topography. <br />Reclamation Plan <br />Reclamation, in terms of backfilling and grading, will not be contemporaneous <br />within the context of the time limits of the Rules and Regulations, due to the <br />pit lengths, the need to remove interburden from above recoverable coal seams, <br />and cycling times. The operator has committed to the criteria that there will <br />never be more than four unregraded spoil rows (including the active one) at <br />any one time. This has been approved as a variance by the Division and ie <br />bonded accordingly. <br />After final grading of the spoil ridges, topsoil is placed on the spoil to a <br />depth of 18 inches on cropland and 12 inches on rangeland. Variation of +/- 2 <br />inches is allowed due to compaction and operational considerations. Areas are <br />then seeded with one of three main seed mixes, depending on the elevation. <br />Range site A seed mix corresponds to the highest elevations within the mine <br />site, range site B seed mix the intermediate areas, and range site C the lower <br />elevations. The A and B seed mixes contain various grasses, forbe and shrubs <br />while the C seed mix has only grasses and forbe. Shrub clumps of <br />approximately 1.6 acres are established from the transplanting of mature <br />shrubs retrieved from the advancing areas of the pits. Seeding will be done <br />by both drill and broadcasting methods. Areas will be drill seeded at a rate <br />of no less than 30 PLS per square foot or if broadcast seeded, no less than 45 <br />PLS per square foot. <br />Lon4 Term Ash Disposal Plan <br />The applicant ie backfilling utility plant waste materials into mine pits. <br />Currently, this activity only takes place in the Ashmore Pit. This material <br />comes from the adjacent Craig Power Plant and consists of fly ash, bottom ash, <br />and scrubber sludge. Approximately 60t of the utility waste will be fly ash, <br />20°s will be bottom ash, and 20$ will be scrubber sludge. A maximum of 5,250 <br />tons per day of the waste will be disposed of the Trapper Mine with an average <br />of 1,222 tons/day expected. This is equivalent to an average annual volume of <br />waste of about 231 acre-feet, after compaction. The applicant estimates that <br />this waste burial process will continue for the life of the mine. The current <br />and proposed plan ensures that the ash will be keep out of the area where a <br />spoil aquifer may develop within the pit. Also it will be covered with 5 feet <br />of non-toxic spoil prior to final reclamation. No ash leachate is predicted <br />but appropriate down gradient ground water monitoring is in place to detect <br />any potential degradation of the ground water. <br />Page 7 <br />