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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 truck 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 that 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 and highway 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 Highway 12. Thirty-one drill holes and shafts that penetrated the mine workings were converted to an industrial land use to allow for methane gas extraction from [he workings. This conversion allows for orderly gas extraction without additional disturbance to the environment and allows development of a resource that 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 ranche[tes 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 unconformably overlies the Raton Formation and has a thickness of approximately 200 feet in the mine area. Unconsolidated Quaternary alluvial and colluvial deposits overlie the Raton Formation in the low-lying areas. The Raton Formation dips approximately two degrees east-northeast. The permit area contains one steep, normal fault trending east-northeast with vertical displacement of 25 feet. The rock strata in the region can contain groundwater, but are not a significant source of water in the area of the mine. Typically bedrock groundwater is perched and usable sources are unreliable for most uses. Igneous intrusions can cause impermeable boundaries that act as barriers to groundwater migration. The Purgatoire River is the main surface water drainage in the region. Its headwaters originate west of the mine in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Eventually, the Purgatoire flows into the Arkansas River near Las Animas, Colorado, approximately 120 miles northeast of the mine. The Purgatoire River and its alluvium aquifer