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box cut that is disturbed twice during the excavation process, and cannot be final graded until <br />excavation advances away from the box cut area. Surface mining with a dragline progresses in a <br />logical repetitious sequence: the dragline opens a pit luncovers/exposes coall, the overburden is placed <br />in the previous mined pit, the coal is removed, the current highwall is drilled and blasted, the dragline <br />begins again and uncovers another pit width of coal. This process is repeated until all the coal has <br />been recovered. This mining process/sequence does not allow more than one pit width to be open at a <br />time. There may be single pits open in more then one mining area, but physically there can't be more <br />than one pit width open in a single mining area. However multiple spoil ridges may be present in each <br />mining area depending on the reclamation (rough grading) sequence. Further discussion of this <br />situation is presented in Tab 12 and 20. In order to achieve the designed postmining landform, the <br />necessary backfill material must be available to perform area grading on internal spoil. Generally, <br />adequate material will not be available until mining has resulted in development of at feast two spoil <br />ridges behind the advancing pit. Tab 20 discusses the area grading concept. When the pit <br />configuration is regular le.g., typically, interior spoilt, and where sufficient area is available to perform <br />"area grading", SCC will conduct backfilling and grading activities on areas beyond two spoil rows from <br />the active pit. Typically, it will take approximately 90 to 120 days to cycle the dragline from one end <br />of the coal field and back during the permit term; however, due to coal market and operation <br />considerations, it is periodically required to also cycle the dragline from the south to the north and <br />back. This could add 60 to 90 days to the dragline cycle before a single spoil row is created. <br />Therefore, due to the depth of overburden, and configuration and length of the pit, it could take over <br />one year to generate four spoil rows. <br />Four spoil peaks will also be created by other mining situations. First, in certain locations such as along <br />the ramps and the haul road, in the box cut spoil area, along certain inside or outside curves, along <br />irregular coal recovery areas, areas with short pit lengths and adjacent to facilities areas, it could take <br />more than four spoil rows to create sufficient spoil area to allow final grading to "daylight" and blend <br />into the surrounding topography. Second, in some cases, the box cut spoil material is required to be <br />dozed or hauled forward into the mined area. In this case, the pit progression must move ahead more <br />than four pit widths and the coal must be removed before the spoil can be excavated and graded to its <br />final configuration. Ramps, roads, or facilities must no longer be required for the mining operation <br />before they can be removed or relocated and the adjacent spoil excavated to final grade. Lastly, the <br />completion of backfilling and grading of final highwalls may require up to two years following coal <br />removal. This is due to the larger operational area required for highwall reduction as opposed to interior <br />spoil grading. <br />SCC proposes to utilize the general backfilling and final grading sequence illustrated by Exhibits 19-1 <br />and 79-1A and the reclamation schedule shown on Table 19-1 to achieve the proposed postmining <br />topography shown on Exhibits 20-2 and 20-2A. In summary, the annual projection of areas graded are <br />based upon certain considerations. First, approximately two spoil rows are normally graded <br />simultaneously, once pit development establishes asteady-state configuration, to achieve the desired <br />postmining .land configuration and to effectively maintain topographic continuity between grading <br />sequences. <br />PR03 5 Revised 7/02 <br />