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The surface disturbance includes three existing portal areas; the No. 5 Portals, <br />the No. SA Portals, and the No. 9 Portals. The No. 9 Portal area is approved for <br />and is currently being used for a coal processing waste pile. <br />Access to the No. 6 Mine will be from within the existing areas of the No. 5 Mine, <br />within the SA Portals. This access will result in no new surface disturbance. <br />Associated facilities include: mine dewatering ponds, sediment control ponds, <br />haul roads, conveyors, breakers, silo, loadout, sampler, scale, and mine <br />buildings. Coal is conveyed from the No. 6 Mine to the silo, where it is loaded <br />onto a unit train. Waste rock is conveyed from the portal 5 facilities area and <br />hauled to a coal processing waste pile. A loadout in Craig, Colorado, was <br />previously permitted as an auxiliary loading facility. This loadout received <br />complete bond release on February 21, 1990 and is no longer a part of the permit. <br />Mine water and surface runoff are handled through existing structures. Eagle <br />No. 5 Mine water and No. 6 Mine water is collected in a mine s~unp and pumped to <br />the surface, (7 North Angle) where it passes through a two-pond system before it <br />is discharged into the Williams Fork River. Disturbed area drainage is controlled <br />by ponds, except for limited areas where small area exemptions have been approved. <br />The operator reclaimed the Williams Fork Strip Pit No. 2 during 1987. The plans <br />are included in Exhibit 24 of the permit application. <br />Upon cessation of mining activities, all surface-disturbed lands will be <br />reclaimed. Surface facilities will be removed and surface disturbance areas will <br />be regraded. All areas will be graded to approximate original contour. Topsoil <br />from existing stockpiles will be redistributed over most of they surface area. <br />Certain areas were disturbed prior to the existing reclamation laws and no topsoil <br />is available. However, surface disturbances will be seeded. F~eclamation success <br />will be determined by comparing the reclaimed areas to a set of: revegetation <br />success standards, including comparison to approved reference areas. <br />In a previously amended permit application, Empire Energy Corporation proposed <br />only partial extraction for the Eagle No. 9 Mine (submitted December 1982). <br />However, because of concerns with the discussion of probable hydrologic conse- <br />quences and the potential effects of subsidence on renewable resource lands in the <br />Big Bottom area, the Division could not recommend approval, even for a limited <br />extraction plan. Some of these problems were later resolved and limited mining <br />was approved in the revised findings document of April 9, 1984. Empire Energy <br />Corporation subsequently ceased mining.in.the Eagle No. 9 Mine (P seam) as of <br />March 1985. Plans for reclamation of the surface disturbances attendant to the <br />Eagle No. 9 are included within Section 2.05.4 of the permit application. <br />9 <br />