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Drawdowns in Monitoring Wells <br />According to information in the permit application, wells completed in the rnal seam <br />close to the mine workings and monitored by the Golden Eagle Mine have shown <br />drawdowns caused by mining operations. Exhibit #6 in the Golden Eagle permit <br />application, titled Basin Resowret New Elk and Colden Eagle Mines Response to Renewal <br />Stipulations 52 and 67, Probable Hydrologic Consequences of Minim CDMG Permit Nar. <br />C-81-012 artd C-81-013, was reviewed az part of this investigation. This report <br />summarizes monitoring data collected for fourteen years. Several monitoring wells <br />rnmpleted in the rnal seam mined have shown drawdowns as mining progressed closer to <br />the wells. Because the wells are completed in the coal seam and because the coal seam <br />has a much higher permeability than the overburden, drawdowns in these wells caa be <br />expected to be much higher than drawdowns in wells completed in the overburden. <br />Wells LA-218 and LA-221 have shown drawdowns of 2t~0 feet and 287 feet, respectively. <br />Mine workings have approached to within 900 feet and 126 feet of these wells, <br />respectively. Despite the facts that the windmill well is completed in a zone 450 feet <br />above the affected coal seam, and that the Raton Formation contains numerous <br />impermeable interbedded shales and siltstones, it is reasonable to assume that <br />groundwater in the area of the well may experience some drawdown. <br />Probable Hydrologic Consequences Related to the Installation of the Borehole (PHC). <br />The Golden Eagle Mine statement of probable hydrologic consequences (PHC) can be <br />found slatting on page 2.05 - 34 of the permit application and was last updated Apri127, <br />1994. In the PHG Basin Resources predicted that miring activities adjacent to or under <br />windmills could render them unusable. Basin Resources stated that they would, <br />however, take appropriate mitigative measures if ailing seriously impacted the potential <br />for their use. The previous mine operator, Wyoming Fuels Company, conducted a water <br />user survey during May of 1984 to identify all wells and windmills within one mile of the <br />New Elk and Golden Eagle mine permit boundaries. The water well survey was <br />conducted to identify users and to assess the potential effects of mining on the quality <br />and quantity of water in the surveyed wells. The Tatum well was identified as unused in <br />this survey and no additiotal data on this well is included in the permit. The survey was <br />last updated in 1993 during the permit renewal and included additional water wells that <br />had been drilled since 1984. Well sustained yields and water quality information on <br />other wells is given in exhibit 8 of the permit application. <br />Basin Resources proposed the construction of the ventilation shaft borehole on October <br />2, 1990 with the submittal of technical revision TR-15. Section 4.05, of the Hydrologic <br />Balance portion of this revision states that "every reasonable attempt will be made to <br />eliminate or reduce water inflow into the shaft". To minittize groundwater inflows into <br />the open borehole, prior to drilling the borehole, the formation was injection grouted. <br />According to the operator, there were four drillholes that were used for the injection <br />grouting around the location of the central borehole. This technique is one of several <br />appropriate techtiques that can be used to reduce inflows. This techtique was not <br />entirety successful because after the construction of the shaft, water inflows into the area <br />of the mine that included this shaft were estimated by the operator to be 20 gallons per <br />