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West Elk Mine <br />containment) polyethylene tanks are located west of the loadout building to contain antifreeze <br />• (diethylene glycol) for treatment of coal and railcars for winter shipment. One 12-foot diameter <br />tank contains approximately 15,000 gallons of antifreeze to spray on the coal as it is loaded. <br />Another 12-foot diameter tank contains approximately 9,800 gallons of a thicker antifreeze to <br />treat the railcazs prior to loading. A concrete clean-up bunker is located to the east of the loadout <br />building. The bunker is used to clean-up coal that occasionally spills during the loading process. <br />The spilled coal is loaded into a truck and hauled to the main mine site. <br />(8) Coal Processins Waste and Non-Coal Processine Waste <br />MCC generates waste or refuse during underground construction activities and mining. <br />Underground construction activities include building ventilation overcasts or undercasts, <br />ventilation shafts or tunnels, access slopes, and roadways or haulage ways. Mining produces <br />refuse material from the roof and floor surrounding the coal seam. <br />Although underground construction activities and mining constitute the primary sources of <br />refuse material, some refuse is generated from other mine activities. Other sources of refuse <br />material aze contaminated coal spillage, sediment pond dredgings, soils contaminated with non- <br />hazazdous materials (e.g. petroleum products) and limited mine development or coal processing <br />wastes from neighboring operations, if comparable in chazacteristic to West Elk Mine's refuse. <br />These additional sources make up a very small percentage of the total amount of refuse produced <br />at West Elk Mine. <br />During the operational life of the mine to date, refuse has been disposed of in several permitted <br />locations. They include the Bear No. 2 Mine portal bench, the Blue Ribbon Mine bench <br />stabilization and backfill, and West Elk Mine's portal bench mine supply storage area fill and the <br />run-of--mine stack tubes coal storage area fills. Coal refuse was once stockpiled in the initial <br />waste rock storage azea (maintenance shop bench), but all refuse or waste was removed before <br />construction of the earthen fill to make a pad for the shop. Coal refuse is transported from the <br />mine on the run-of--mine belt and/or is hauled with equipment out of the main portal. This refuse <br />may be temporarily stockpiled in the screening plant reject bin or on the stack-tube bench, and <br />on the portal bench or in the nearby concrete bunkers, respectively. The amount of coal refuse <br />produced is variable. The refuse material that accumulates in the temporary storage areas, is <br />hauled by truck to the permanent refuse disposal azea. <br />Three permanent refuse disposal azeas and one development waste pile are permitted at West Elk <br />Mine. Initially, refuse was temporarily stockpiled in an area formerly called the U.S. Steel <br />laydown area. This area has been enlazged and converted to a permanent refuse pile called the <br />Lower Refuse Disposal Area or Lower Refuse Pile (LRP). A permanent refuse pile is also <br />permitted for the meadow above the portal bench. This azea is referred to as the Upper Refuse <br />Disposal Area (URDA). Although this upper refuse disposal area has been approved for <br />construction, it is not yet needed. Thus, construction of the Upper Refuse Disposal Area will <br />occur in the future, if needed. All construction infonnation about these two disposal azeas is <br />contained in Exhibit 50 (URDA) and Exhibit 51 (LRP). As MCC believed that the Lower <br />. Refuse Pile would reach its maximum storage capacity in 1997 (and before completing <br />construction of the ventilation shafts in Sylvester Gulch), a third refuse disposal area was <br />2.05-39 Revised November 1004 PRl0 <br />