Laserfiche WebLink
III Iillllllllllllll <br />999 <br />Decision Notice And Finding of No Significant Impact <br />Gob Ventilation Borehole Drilling for East Side of Pauel 15 <br />Mountain Coal Company, West Elk Mine <br />USDA Forest Service <br />Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forests ~~'~~~~~~ <br />Paonia, Colorado <br />Gunnison County ~~er 2 ~ ~~ <br />~Sionofggi~~s& Gam; <br />I. INTRODUCTION <br />An environmental assessment (EA) that discusses the effects of accessing and installing <br />five gob ventilation boreholes (GVBs) over Mountain Coal Company's (MCC) West Elk <br />Mine has been completed by the USDA-Forest Service, Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre and <br />Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) and released for public review. MCC is a subsidiary <br />of Arch Western Resources, LLC, and operates the West Elk Mine near Somerset, CO. <br />Since Mazch 2001, MCC has experienced excessive methane gas build up in the <br />underground mine. Since that time, the mine has been periodically shut down by the <br />Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to allow the methane levels to reduce <br />to safe concentrations. Production activity has been allowed only when the methane gas <br />levels are within safe concentrations for worker safety. To remedy the problem, MCC <br />has undertaken a program to install gob ventilation boreholes (GVBs) from the land <br />surface into the underground mine workings to assist in liberating the methane gas. <br />The GMUG received a proposal from MCC to drill and install five GVBs over longwall <br />panel 15 at the West Elk Mine as part of an on-going program to liberate methane gas <br />from the underground mine workings. The proposal included the drilling and installation <br />of GVBs and the associated access needed for drill rigs and ancillary traffic, and access <br />needs for conducting sampling and monitoring of the GVBs during active use. <br />MCC operates in several federal coal leases that have surface lands administered by the <br />GMUG. The coal in the federal leases is administered by the BLM, Uncompahgre Field <br />~" Office. The proposed GVB and associated road access lies on lands administered by the <br />GMUG. The GVBs would be drilled and installed over mine workings encompassed by <br />Federal Coal Lease COC-56447. <br />II. DECISION <br />I have decided to implement Alternative 3 as described in the EA (EA, p. 9) and <br />summarized in Section IV of this document. <br />