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West Elk Mine • 2.06.7 Variances for Delay in Contemporaneous Reclamation Requirements in Combined Surface and Underground Mining Operations Because the West Elk Mine is an underground mine, reclamation of surface facilities will not be completed until mine closure. The Refuse Pile Expansion refuse disposal area will be contemporaneously reclaimed as the various phases are completed. The Lower Refuse Pile will be used as a storage area until it can be built to the final (heaped) configuration and reclaimed. As such, a waiver or variance for delay in contemporaneous reclamation is required for the Lower Refuse Pile. 2.06.8 Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Operations on Areas, or Adjacent to Areas, Including Alluvial Valley Floors A reconnaissance investigation for Alluvial Valley Floor (AVF) assessment was performed in accordance with State and OSM Regulations and following, to the extent possible, OSM Technical Guidance Paper. According to Title 34, Colorado Revised Statutes 1973, Article 33, Section 34-33-103(2), "Alluvial • Valley Floors" means the unconsolidated stream-laid deposits holding streams where water availability is sufficient for subirrigation or flood irrigation agricultural activities but does not include upland areas which are generally overlain by a thin veneer of colluvial deposits composed chiefly of debris from sheet erosion, deposits by unconcentrated runoff or slope wash, together with talus, other mass movement accumulation, and windblown deposits. Rule 1 _04.10 nfthe Colorado Mined land Reclamation R~ard'c Remdatinnc for Cnal Mining reads, "Alluvial Valley Floors' means the unconsolidated stream-laid deposits holding streams with water availability sufficient for subirrigation or flood irrigation agricultural activities but does not include upland areas which aze generally overlain by a thin veneer of colluvial deposits composed chiefly of debris from sheet erosion, deposits formed by unconcentrated runoff or slope wash, together with talus, other mass movement accumulations, and windblown deposits. The same regulations go on to state, at Rule 1.04.147, that "Upland Areas" means, with respect to Alluvial Valley Floors, those geomorphic features located outside the flood plain and terrace complex, such as isolated higher terraces, alluvial fans, pediment surfaces, landslide deposits, and surfaces covered with residuum, mud flows or debris flows, as well as highland azeas underlain by bedrock and covered by residual weathered material or material deposited by sheet wash, rillwash, or wind. Public Law 95-87 states, in Section 701.1, that "Alluvial Valley Floors" means the unconsolidated stream-laided deposits holding streams where water availability is sufficient for subirrigation or flood imgation agricultural activities but does not include upland areas which are generally overlain 2.06-2 5/1/03 MR-294