PERMFILE132469

• Permit No: C1980007A
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 6/2/2006
• Section_Exhibit Name: 2.05.4 Reclamation Plan
• Media Type: D
• Archive: Yes

• Surface and Groundwater Monitoring
Program Chan es: There are three major revisions, which have changed MCC's monitoring
program since monitoring began in the 1970's. The first was TR#54, approved in 1987, which
temporarily discontinued monitoring of those resources located south of Minnesota Creek as it
would likely be many yeazs before mining approached these locations. Monitoring of each resource
is to be reinitiated at least one yeaz prior to potential impacts from mining. The second revision,
TR#85, approved in 1998, eliminated some groundwater wells that were no longer providing
reliable information. The third revision, TR#88, approved in 1999, eliminated springs and
groundwater wells, as a result of a hydrogeologic investigation completed by Mayo and Associates
(see Exhibit 18).
Schedule of Monitoring: In TR#54 MCC, based on a statistical analysis of annual flows, also
established "sampling windows" in which the water resources would be sampled to capture the
rising limb, the peak, and low flow of the hydrograph. These windows aze:
Rising Limb Apri13 to May 13
Peak Apri121 to June 26
Low Flow July 10 to October 8
There will be three distinct sampling periods.
Surface Water Monitoring
• In 1977 Mountain Coal Company installed, and has since maintained and operated, a network of six
continuous recording stream gaging stations to establish the baseline surface water hydrology for
the permit and adjacent areas of the West Elk Mine and provide a method of assessing the impacts
of mining during the life of the West Elk Mine. Five of these gaging stations aze located in the
Minnesota Creek drainage basin on Horse Creek, Lick Creek, South Prong, Upper Dry Fork, and
Lower Dry Fork. The sixth gaging station is located on Sylvester Gulch a tributary of the North
Fork adjacent to the surface facilities. Data records for all of these gaging stations, in both tabular
and graphic form have been provided to CDMG in previous permit submittals for the West Elk
Mine. These data are also found in the Annual Hydrologic Reports. This comprehensive data base
has served to more than adequately chazacterize the baseline surface water hydrology across the
mine plan area for the West Elk Mine.
In addition to the original five gaging stations, Mountain Coal Company has installed and operates
a gaging station on the main stem of Minnesota Creek, the Lower Minnesota Creek (USGS) gaging
station and on the East Fork of Minnesota Creek just upstream of the confluence of East Fork and
Dry Fork, Upper Minnesota Creek (USFS) gaging station. MCC also collects flow data from the
North Fork of the Gunnison at the Upper North Fork gaging station, which is a USGS gaging
station. MCC has since installed additional gaging stations at Middle Dry Fork and Upper and
Lower Deep Creek. The locations of all surface water gaging stations can be found on Map 34. The
currently monitored stations are listed in Table 5 in Section 2.04.7.
In addition to providing baseline data, a portion of the Minnesota Creek gaging station network will
be relied upon to deternvne the existence of stream depletions to Minnesota Creek arising from
2.05-71 Revised Dec. 7997 MR208; Revised Jan. 1999 rR88; Rev. April 2006 PRIO