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_3- <br />Summary <br />The Review Process, Description of the Environment and Description of the <br />Operations and Reclamation Plan. <br />The Review Process <br />The Eastside Coal Company, Inc. is applying for approval under the <br />Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act to conduct exploration <br />involving removal of more than 250 tons of coal at the Harvey Gap <br />Project. The project is located approximately 3 1/2 miles north of Silt, <br />Colorado, in Garfield County, in Section 24, T5S, R92W of the 6th P.M. <br />Eastside Coal Company, Inc. originally submitted an application for the <br />Harvey Gap Exploration Project on August 24, 1983. The original <br />application was determined by the Division to be incomplete. Additional <br />information was submitted on September 4, 1983 and the Division deemed <br />the application complete on September 8, 1983. An adequacy letter <br />detailing technical deficiencies identified by the Division was sent to <br />the applicant on September 22, 1983. The applicant's responses to that <br />letter were received by the Division on October 3, 1983. - <br />Description of the Environment <br />The exploration site is located at the foot of the west facing slope of <br />the steep sided Harvey Gap drainage at an elevation of 6,700 feet. <br />Harvey Gap is an erosional feature which bisects the Grand Hogback, the <br />most prominent structural feature in the region. Topographic relief in <br />the vicinity commonly reaches 2,000 feet, with slope gradients of between <br />30 and 50~. <br />Land use in the immediate vicinity is grazing and wildlife habitat. <br />Agriculture is a primary land use on the alluvial terraces of the <br />Colorado River located approximately one mile to the south of the <br />exploration site. The site of the surface disturbance is in an area <br />previously disturbed by underground coal mining activity. <br />Coal to be extracted by the exploration operation is the "E" seam; which <br />is contained within the Isles Formation of the Mesa Verde Group. The <br />Isles Formation consists of over 1,000 feet of interbedded sandstones, <br />shales and, coals and is overlain by the non-marine sandstones, <br />siltstone, shales, and coals of the Williams Fork Formation which is over <br />3,000 feet thick in the Harvey Gap area. The "E" seam is approximately <br />12 feet thick and dips at 59o to the south at Harvey Gap. <br />