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Mountain Coal Company <br />West Elk Mine <br />Post Offiee Box 597 <br />Somerset, Colorado 87434 <br />Telephone 97092rL5015 <br />Fax 970 925595 <br />February 5, 1997 <br />Mr. Charles Dunn -Right-of--Way Engineer <br />Colorado Department of Transportation <br />Division of Highways <br />P.O. Box 2107, 222 S. 6th Street <br />Grand Junction, CO 81502 <br />RE: Refuse Pile Ezpansion; Mountain Coal Company; West Elk Mine <br />Dear Mr. Dunn: <br />~` <br />Approximately one year ago, Mountain Coal Company (MCC) informed you in a letter and <br />through several phone conversations, that MCC was completing designs of a new coal waste rock <br />pile at the West Elk Mine. Since that time, MCC has field located the Colorado Department of <br />Transportation's (CDOT) right-of--way (ROW) and has revised the pile designs. These revised <br />• designs are enclosed. <br />The location of the ROW, as shown on the drawings, was located per the legal description of the <br />ROW in the area of the proposed coal waste rock pile or Refuse Pile Expansion (RPE). In <br />addition to the RPE, an azea located on the north side of the highway has been proposed for <br />topsoil and subsoil storage piles. This design is also enclosed. Soil removed from the RPE area <br />will be stockpiled in this azea for reclamation of the pile. As you will note, all construction <br />activities for the RPE and the soil storage azea will take place outside of the CDOT ROW. <br />However, a portion of the embankment of the proposed storm water runoff pond will be adjacent <br />to the fill of State FLghway 133. MCC's geotechnical consultants, Harding Lawson Associates <br />(I-II,A), noted that there is currently some instability associated with this highway fill. HLA has <br />also completed geotechnical modeling of this area and has determined that the proposed location <br />of the pond will stabilize the highway fill. The pond will be lined and the existing highway culvert <br />will be utilized to pass dischazge from the pond to the North Fork of the Gunnison River. This <br />stability analysis is also enclosed for your review. <br />Although construction will be outside of the CDOT ROW, both the RPE and soil storage azeas <br />will be located within 100 feet of the outside ROW of State highway 133. Rule 2.07.6(2)(d)(iv) <br />of the Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Boazd for Coal Ivfining, administered <br />by the Division of Minerals and Geology, requires that if operations (e.g., the RPE and North Soil <br />Storage area) exist within 100 feet of the outside ROW of a public road, the permittee must <br />receive approval from the authority with jurisdiction over the public road. As the RPE and the <br />• North Soil Storage area aze within this limit of State I-Lghway 133, MCC requests approval from <br />