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• be stored at or near the corrals along the county road near USFS road FS 711. The equipment would then be moved to the bore hole sites as needed. 3. The USFS requested an estimated duration of monitoring and when each individual hole may be abandohed. At this time MCC does not know the when the project will be completed. The anticipated duration of monitoring would be at the completion of mining the long vall panel district in July 2002. 4. The USFS requested MCC's long-term plans for other drilling in the area, including exploration, and other gob vent borehole beyond the 4 MCC forsees. MCC cannot provide a specific list of all future drilling activities for the long-term. At this time gob vent boreholes appear to be the only remedy to relieve the current high levels of methane in the West Elk Mine. Therefore MCC speculates that this type of drilling will be required for the longwall panel district (Panels 14-17) as well as panels north of this district in the B-Seam as methane occurrence is expected in these mining districts. The number of holes, spacing, location, and etc. of these speculated drill holes will be a function of the results and experience gained through the proposed immediate drilling. MCC has learned from others in the industry that 3 or 4 gob vent boreholes are typical for longwall panels of similar length and • width of those at the West Elk Mine. Two coal exploration drill holes were planned to be drilled this year with one or tw planned for next year, all are located north of current the longwall panel district (Panels These holes were planned prior to the need for gob vent bore holes and there may be an opportunity to combine these exploration drill holes and future ventilation gob vent / de- holes to minimize disturbance and costs. MCC will review these options as the immediat results are evaluated. 5. The USFS requested clarification of "newly disturbed" as it applies to the reclamation plan. 0 14-17). gas bore e drill The roads and pads existing on West Flatiron would be re-built as they were reclaimed, i.e. reseeded and tank traps installed, after previous coal exploration drilling activities and the reclamation bonds were released to MCC. These areas would be "newly disturbed" because topsoil will need to be salvaged and the areas re-seeded. Reclamation of the project does not include reclamation of the existing USFS numbered roads. 6. The USFS commented that the proposed access would be on FR 711 (Dry Fork Minnesota Creek) to FR 711.2B (Apache Rocks) then to the old W. Flatiron drill road. MCC now recognizes the correct numeration of the USFS roads. n U As requested MCC will replace the silt fence which was noted by the USFS at the large stock pond above the junction of FR 711 and 711.2B.