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<br />Description of the Environment
<br />The Foidel Creek Mine is located approximately 22 miles southwest of Steamboat Springs, in Roun
<br />County, Colorado. The permit area varies in elevation from 6,600'to 7,500' with the portal openings at
<br />6,885' along Foidel Creek. Generally, the topography consists of gently rolling hills, dip slopes and cliff
<br />outcrops. Flatter topography is evident in the valleys of the major streams draining the area (Fish Creek
<br />and Foidel Creek), as well as along the gentle dip slopes. Prominent cliffs have formed where massive
<br />sandstone units outcrop. Coal is presently, and has historically been, mined under other approved permits
<br />by surface methods on the dip slopes, where overburden thickness allows for economic extraction within
<br />Twentymile Park around its margins, and where folding has elevated a major coal seam within the basin.
<br />Foidel Creek Mine is currently the only active underground operation within Twentymile Park. The mine
<br />is a longwall operation, using continuous miners for entry and development work only. The permit area
<br />encompasses approximately 22,460 acres. This permit revision (PR-04) does not propose to enlarge the
<br />permit boundary but will create approximately 1,146 additional acres of affected area within the permit
<br />area as a result of the creation of the new underground workings. No new surface disturbances are
<br />proposed.
<br />USGS Quadrangle maps of Milner and Rattlesnake Butte cover the majority of the permit area. Disturbed
<br />areas of the mine include the main surface facilities area along Foidel Creek and numerous smaller
<br />outlying facilities. These mine-related facilities result in 454.6 total disturbed acres. The main mine
<br />facilities lie in Sections 29, 31, 32, TSN, R86W of the 6th Principle Meridian and are located in, and
<br />adjacent to, a strip pit excavated originally by Colorado Yampa Coal Company's (CYCC) surface mining
<br />operation (No. C-81-071). Other facilities currently within the permit area, but separate from the main
<br />portal facility area, include the Fish Creek Borehole (FCB) facility, the Southwest ventilation facility (SW
<br />vent), the Eastern Mining District ventilation facility (EMD vent), the Eastern Mining District
<br />dewatering facility (EMD borehole), the Sandstones substation and North Escape Shafr, the Fish Creek
<br />Tipple (FCT) facility and the Eastern Mining District grout hole pad.
<br />The FCB is located on Fish Creek approximately 2 miles northwest of the main facility area in Section 23,
<br />TSN R87W. It consists of 2 dewatering boreholes, an inactive ventilation shaft, 3 treatment ponds,
<br />associated roads, a substation, a utility building, and water treatment equipment. The SW vent was
<br />reclaimed in 1996 and is located in Section 36, TSN R87W. The EMD vent facility is located in Section
<br />14, TSN R86W and consists of two ventilation shafts (intake air and return air), intake air heating unit,
<br />associated buildings, powerlines, and fuel tank. The EMD borehole disturbed area is located in Section
<br />21, TSN R86W and consists of a small pump building, a buried water return line and topsoil stockpiles.
<br />The Sandstones substation in Section 20, TSN R86W no longer serves as a power drop to the mine. The
<br />nearby North Escape Shaft has no facilities but exists as a completed 3 foot diameter shaft to be used only
<br />as an underground emergency extraction point for miners.
<br />The FCT facility is located approximately 5 miles northeast of the main portal area in
<br />Section 2, TSN R86W, about 7 miles downstream on Fish Creek from the FCB facility. It was originally
<br />permitted separately under permit No. C-81-036 but since has been incorporated into the Foidel Creek
<br />permit No. C-82-056. It consists of a rail loadout, crushing and screening equipment, conveyors, stockpile
<br />areas, and a sediment control system of ditches and one pond. The FCT facility has been idle since Mine
<br />No. 3 (No. C-84-062) completed mining, and is curzently inactive as of the writing of this document in
<br />April 1998.
<br />The proposed mine plan expansion area lies on the south end of the regionally significant Sand Wash
<br />structural basin. Locally significant are the rock units of Twentymile Park Basin which dip So - 30o
<br />toward the central portion of the basin. Normal faulting has been identified throughout the permit area,
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