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Section I -Mine History and the Environment The Golden Eagle mine is located in Las Animas County, Colorado approximately 20 miles west of Trinidad along State Highwayl2. The Golden Eagle mine began operations under the name of the Maxwell Mine which was permitted and operated by Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (CF&I). In January of 1984, the mine was purchased by Wyoming Fuels, a KN Energy subsidiary. In March of 1993, the permittee and operator changed to Basin Resources Inc., awholly-owned subsidiary of Entech, Inc., also a subsidiary of Montana Power Company. Due to difficult mining conditions and economic reasons, the mine officially shut down operations on December 31, 1995. All facilities were removed, backfilling and grading was completed, and the disturbed areas were topsoiled, seeded and mulched. Mine-related activities presently are focused on bond release, monitoring, and maintenance. The majority of the mine facilities were located immediately south of the highway and the Purgatoire River, near the mouth of Ciruela Canyon. Two ventilation shafts, mine buildings, water tanks, portal, coal stockpiles, conveyors, and a coal [tuck loadout were located in this area. Amine development waste pile was also constructed at the mouth of Ciruela Canyon, immediately south of the rail line which crosses the permit area. During active mining operations, the mine used both continuous miners and a 600 foot longwall to extract coal from the Maxwell seam. Two longwall panels were mined south of Highway 12. No longwall mining occurred under the highway or under the adjacent Purgatoire River alluvial valley floor. However, development mining did occur under the. river to allow access to reserves to the north of the highway. Two complete longwall panels and a portion of a third panel were mined north of the highway. Thirty-one mine drill holes and shafts which penetrated the mine workings were converted to an industrial land use to allow for methane gas extraction from the workings. This conversion allows for orderly gas extraction without additional disturbance to the environment and allows development of a resource which would otherwise go to waste. The mine site is located in a plateau area, with elevations ranging from 7,000 to 7,600 feet above mean sea level. Land use in the area consists of cropland and pastureland on valley floors, and rangeland dominating the upland areas. Recently, development of ranchettes and coal bed methane extraction has become an extended use of these traditionally remote areas. The Golden Eagle mine is located on the western limb of the Raton Basin. The Raton Basin is abroad, asymmetric syncline, the axis of which trends generally north-south. All mining activities occur in the Raton Formation where the Maxwell seam is located. The Poison Canyon formation unconfotmably overlies the Raton Formation and has a thickness of approximately 200 feet in the mine area. Unconsolidated Quaternary alluvial and colluvial -3-