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grazing practices may have contributed to the extent of the cheatgrass-annual forb vegetation <br />type throughout the permit area. The permit azea is currently used as winter/spring range for <br />domestic sheep. <br />Wildlife species found within the permit area include mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), <br />pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana), and sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). <br />Numerous raptor species have been identified in the azea. Species include the femxginous hawk <br />(Buteo regalis), turkey vulture (Cathortes aura), marsh hawk (Cireus cyaneus), American kestrel <br />(Falco sparverius), sharp-shinned hawk (Accipter shiatus), burrowing owl (Spestyto <br />cunieulaira), red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicaensus), and golden eagle (Aquila chrysauetos). <br />Bald eagles (ffiiaeetus leucocephalus) and peregrine falcons (Falco seregrinus) aze known to <br />migrate through the azea. Lazge white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) towns exist in the <br />area of the refuse disposal sites. <br />The Deserado Mine is an underground operation utilizing both continuous miners and longwall <br />mining equipment to extract the "D" (upper) and "B" (lower) coal seams. Mining operations <br />conducted during previous permit terms have extracted the D seam. D seam mining was <br />completed, and B seam mining commenced in 1999, and will continue during the current permit <br />term. <br />Raw coal is transported out of the mine by conveyor to the D/B-Portal Area wash plant where the <br />coal is crushed and cleaned. The coal is then transported 3.1 miles to the rail loadout facility via <br />an over-land conveyor system. The coal is conveyed to the slot storage building, which can store <br />up to 25,000 tons of coal. From this building coal is conveyed one third of one mile to the <br />loadout azea. Clean coal is then transported by rail to the Bonanza Power Plant in Vernal, Utah. <br />The rail loop and facilities within the rail loop were removed from the permit and the reclamation <br />plan with the approval of Permit Revision 04. The loadout tower will remain in the permit and <br />reclamation plan as will all of the structures that convey the coal to that point. Blue Mountain <br />Energy will keep all operations related to the mining operations and the loading and transport of <br />coal sepazate. The decision to remove the rail loop and associated facilities was based on IBLA <br />decision 94-366. <br />Coal processing waste generated at the wash plant facility is trucked approximately 3.6 miles to <br />the refuse disposal area located east of the rail loadout in the northeast portion of the permit azea. <br />The refuse disposal azea includes eleven subareas of refuse deposition. The first subazea (RP-1) <br />was reclaimed in late 1990, implementing a revegetation study that involved variations from the <br />required four feet of cover. Combined Refuse Area RP-2/3/4, and the adjacent Refuse Area RP- <br />SA are currently active, and the remaining subazeas have yet to be developed. Noncoal solid <br />wastes aze hauled to anoff-permit landfill by a contract trash service or aze disposed of at the <br />Halandras landfill in the northwest portion of the permit azea. The first six pits of that dump <br />have been reclaimed and pits 7 and 8 are active. <br />Refuse and landfill areas and degas well pads are reclaimed contemporaneously. Certain facility <br />17 <br />