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<br />Summarv <br />Twentymile Coal Company (TCC), a subsidiary of Cyprus AMAX Minerals Company, submitted <br />a permit revision application (PR-03), Eastern Mining District, for the Foidel Creek Mine. The <br />Foidel Creek Mine is exclusively an underground coal mining operation located approximately 22 <br />miles southwest of Steamboat Springs, Colorado in Routt County. <br />Operations at Foidel Creek Mine were initiated after the Division approved afive-year pilot phase <br />mining plan as a revision to Colorado Yampa Coal Company's (CYCC) Permit C-79-177 in May <br />1983. Subsequently, the underground mine operated by Twentymile Coal Company was <br />administratively separated from the surface mine operated by CYCC. Permit C-82-056 was issued <br />to TCC for the Foidel Creek Mine pilot phase. <br />The revision application (PR-03), Eastern Mining District, seeks to expand the permit area by <br />about 7,680 acres, of which approximately 4,440 are associated with the Eastern Mining District. <br />The significant technical aspect of this revision is the proposed undermining of major geographic <br />features such as Routt County Road No. 33, four electrical power lines, telephone lines, a rail <br />line, Foidel and Middle Creeks (both perennial streams), and the Twentymile Sandstone cliff <br />outcrop. Longwall mining in this area may produce surface subsidence in excess of 7 feet in some <br />locations. <br />Description of the Environment <br />The Foidel Creek Mine is located approximately 22 miles southwest of Steamboat Springs, in <br />Routt County, Colorado. The permit area varies in elevation from 6,600' to 7,500' with the portal <br />openings at 6,885' along Foidel Creek. Generally, the topography consists of gently rolling hills, <br />dip slopes and cliff outcrops. Flatter topography is evident in the valleys of the major streams <br />draining the area (Fish Creek and Foidel Creek), as well as a]ong tfie gentle dip slopes. Prominent <br />cliffs have formed where massive sandstone units outcrop. Coal is presently, and has historically <br />been, mined under other approved permits by surface methods on the dip slopes, where <br />overburden thickness allows for economic extraction within Twentymile Park around its margins, <br />and where folding has elevated a major coal seam within the basin. Foidel Creek Mine is <br />currently the only active underground operation within Twentymile Park. The mine is a longwall <br />operation, using continuous miners for entry and development work only. The proposed revision <br />PR-03 will increase the permit area to 22,460 acres, more or less. <br />USGS Quadrangle maps of Milner and Rattlesnake Butte cover the majority of the permit area. <br />Disturbed azeas of the mine include the main surface facilities area along Foidel Creek and <br />numerous smaller outlying facilities. These mine-related facilities result in 446.2 total disturbed <br />acres. The main mine facilities lie in Sections 29,31,32, TSN,R86W of the 6th Principle Meridian <br />and are located in, and adjacent to, a strip pit excavated originally by Colorado Yampa Coal <br />Company's (CYCC) surface mining operation (No. C-81-071). Other facilities currently within the <br />permit area, but separate from the main portal facility area, include the Fish Creek Borehole <br />(FCB) facility, the Southwest ventilation facility (SW vent), the Eastern Mining District ventilation <br />facility (EMD vent), the Eastern Mining District dewatering facility (EMD borehole), the <br />Sandstones substation and North Escape Shaft, and the Fish Creek Tipple (FCT) facility. <br />3 <br />