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surface using rail cars. Approximately 12 to 14 feet of the B seam were mined <br />in the development and retreat cycle. Annual production in the mine was <br />approximately 900,000 tons per year. <br />Once at the surface, the rail cars dumped the coal at the dump station where <br />it was conveyed to the tipple. The coal was crushed at the tipple then <br />conveyed to the coal storage silo. The silo, a cylindrical cement structure, <br />straddles the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad track and loads unit <br />trains. <br />The Sanborn Creek addition to the Somerset Mine is located approximately one <br />mile east of the town of Somerset. This part of the mine is being developed <br />and mined using conventional room and pillar techniques with the same <br />conventional equipment as previously discussed, except that conveyors are used <br />in place of rail cars. Annual production of this part of the mine is <br />projected to be about 750,000 tons per year. Upon opening the portals, coal <br />was first trucked to the tipple at the Elk Creek yard. A conveyor system was <br />built while developing the first part of the Sanborn Creek addition. The <br />conveyor system is used instead of haul trucks to convey coal from the Sanborn <br />Creek portals to the tipple at the Elk Creek yard. <br />The Sanborn Creek East Tract is located adjacent to the original Sanborn Creek <br />addition on the eastern boundary and is an underground continuation of the <br />Sanborn workings. No additional surface disturbance is required. Method of <br />operations and production rate projections remain the same. <br />Development waste (gob) is disposed of on the surface in the presently <br />approved gob pile on the Elk Creek yard. Non-combustible mine development <br />waste will be disposed of underground in finished C-seam mine workings in a <br />fashion approved by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. <br />As the mine has been in operation since 1902, much of the disturbed area <br />associated with the mine was affected prior to the effective date of the <br />Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and the Colorado Surface <br />Coal Mining Reclamation Act. Baseline environmental factors were not <br />measured, and no topsoil was salvaged prior to previous disturbance. <br />Disturbances which have been conducted since the effective date of the Act <br />have been permitted and conducted in compliance with the Act and Regulations. <br />These activities include the Hubbard Creek Ventilation Fan No. 2 facility, the <br />3 Dip Methane Degas Wellfield, and the Sanborn Creek Tract. All other areas <br />of disturbance at the mine occurred prior to the effective date of the Act, <br />although the Elk Creek facilities are currently functional as the Sanborn <br />Creek Tract support facilities. <br />U. S. Steel conducted a vegetative survey of unaffected land adjacent to the <br />surface-disturbed areas for the purpose of developing a reclamation plan for <br />the surface-disturbed area. The surface will be returned to the undeveloped <br />land-use classification which is the present status of adjacent lands and the <br />pre-mining land use of the disturbed area. <br />Somerset 14ining Company conducted a detailed soil survey and vegetation survey <br />of the areas to be affected by development of the Sanborn Creek portals, haul <br />road and conveyor facilities. These surveys indicated that approximately <br />8,850 cubic yards of soil could be salvaged from these areas and that <br />-8- <br />