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II. Background • The proposed Roadside and Cameo Mine is located in Plesa County, Colorado. The mine is producing Federal and some fee coal for the spot market while the applicant is negotiating long term contracts. There is some private fee coal within the permit boundary associated with the Old Roadside Mine. The mine is located is the central portion of Mesa County, Colorado, approximately 3 miles northeast of Palisade, Colorado along Interstate 70. The 7,491 acre Roadside and Cameo Mines are located on Bureau of Land Management (BIM) and private land with 2,077 acres to be disturbed during this permit period. Approximately 526 acres have been affected by underground mining co date. The permit area is contained is Federal Leases C-01538, C-078049, C-020740, C-024998, and C-029889, (see legal description in the permit and permit area maps located in the "Locatlon Maps" portion of this document. The Roadside and Cameo mines currently produce approx- imately 1,100,000 tons per year by mom and pillar sad long wall extraction methods. This level of production will be maintained until the leases are exhausted sometime around 1995. Ownership of the coal to be mined !s about 87S Federal and 13'w fee (private). The operation is recovering approximately (5OZ) of the reserves. It has .been determined that no renewable resource lands overlie the ~ mine except in designated areas where barrier pillars must be left, in other areas, full pillar extraction will be conducted. The nine surface elevations ramie from 4,800 feet to 7,700 feet in typical western Colorado biota (i.e., steeply sloping mountains) covered by either tall shrub vegetation, particularly Oakbruah and Serviceberry or stands of Pinyon and Juniper trees. The coal berg mined is the Cameo B seam. This seam is the only mineable seam among four seams in the area. The seams are located in the upper Cretaceous Mt. Garfield Formation Mesa Verde Group. It is part of the Bookcliff coal field that has been mined since the late 19th century. The "B" seam Coal is an excellent quality steam, stoker, and lump coal that is low in sulfur and ash and relatively high is B.T.Q. The seam averages about 6 feet in thickness and the seam dips to Che northeast approximatly 5 degrees. The coal aeame in this area are normally uniform with no known faults present and are usually dry unless located stratigzaphically lover than the Colorado River or contain perennial or premined intermittant streams over head. The Roadside has one perennial and one intermittent stream over its property. The Cameo ?Sine is stratigraphically lover than the adjacent Colorado River in some places, and dips away from the river at 3 to 5 degrees to the north-northeast. The Roadside `Line and Cameo `Line are about 1/2 mile away from each other sad separated by the Colorado River (see Location Map).