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January 2004 <br />Table 1 -Past, Present and Reasonably Foreseeable Future Actions <br />Action Dates Effects <br />West Elk Coal 1981 to present Mine has been operating for 22 years, and holds about 10,000 acres of <br />Mine federal coal leases Subsidence on the National Forest and BLM lands <br /> has occurred immediately south, west and southwest of Sylvester <br /> Gulch and Box Canyon Minor surface tension cracks are visible in <br /> places on the surface Topography has lowered between 2 and 10 feet <br /> across the existing subsided areas Mine life is curtently projected for <br /> 15 additional years <br /> An additional 691 acres of lease proposed to be added to the east of <br /> Box Canyon Mining plan extends existing longwall panels onto LBA <br /> tract About 230 acres would be subsided in the lease tract <br /> MCC has submitted an LBA for an additional 1,500 acres of federal <br /> coal 1 to 3 miles south of Box Canyon If approved, subsidence would <br /> occur on all or portions of this acreage MCC also applied for a coal <br /> exploration license about 2 miles south of Box Canyon Four coal <br /> exploration holes proposed with use of existing road and about 0 5 mile <br /> of new road construction Effects of exploration would be temporary <br />' MCC has informally proposed exploration in an area known as the <br /> Sunset Trail, about 5 miles south of the project areas This may involve <br /> 6 miles of tem ora road, and 11 drill ads. <br />Coal Exploration 1990s Box Canyon area included in 4 federal coal exploration licenses. Two <br />Drilling exploration holes drilled in Box Canyon in 1996 Drill locations were <br /> reclaimed Access road prisms still visible, but has been reclaimed <br /> Road closures are inhibiting traffic. <br /> 1970s One coal exploration hole drilled in Sylvester Gulch Remnant of <br /> access road still visible from Forest boundary Ground water monitoring <br /> well resent in ulch. <br />Methane 2001 to present In 2002, MCC approved for 58 methane drainage wells from 46 <br />Drainage Drilling locations over existing leases About 19 approved drill locations are <br /> within 1 mile of Box Canyon, and about 11 drill locations within 1 mile of <br /> Sylvester Gulch Since 2001, about 50 about MDWs have been drilled <br /> over the MDWs project area <br /> About 13 of 19 near Box Canyon drilled in 2003 Drilling on the <br /> additional locations likely to occur in 2004 All 11 near Sylvester Gulch <br /> drilled between 2001 and 2003 About 5 of these locations were <br /> reclaimed in 2002 and 2003 <br /> Locations anticipated to be used for 2 years, then be reclaimed <br /> Reclamation generally successful between 2 and 5 years after <br /> reclamation work completed <br /> Other recent (past 5 years) drilling activity in MCC's lease holdings and <br /> permit area have been approved to disturb about 60 acres of land over <br /> the more than 10,000 acres of lease holdings OF the about 60 acres of <br /> disturbance approved over the past 5 years, about 23 have been <br /> disturbed and then reclaimed, and about 25 acres are currently <br /> disturbed, and about 13 acres have not yet been disturbed <br />Environmental Assessment <br />Sylvester Gulch Road Construction /Box Canyon Coal Methane Drainage Wells ! <br />Box Canyon Shallow Seismic Reflection Survey <br />Gunnison County, Colorado <br />