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Mountain Coal Company 1999 Muual H)'drology Report West Elk Mine <br />• 14SEHG Fault Inflow <br />During WY99, as the downdip expression of the 14SEHG fault was mined through, the flow <br />dried up and relocated to the downdip location. The flow at the end of WY99 was approximately <br />100 gpm. These locations aze identified on Map 1. <br />Minor Inflows <br />As is typical, MCC encountered small inflows during development mining with continuous <br />miners. Initial inflows ranged from less than 0.05 gpm to 15 gpm, and then decreased to drips, <br />or dried entirely. The locations of the inflows aze shown on Map 1. <br />NW Panels Sealed Sump <br />During WY99, MCC continued to utilize the NW Panels sealed sump, which is the area that was <br />created by mining the 1 NW through 7NW longwall panels, and shown on Map 1. The use of this <br />sump allowed MCC to become more efficient in handling mine inflows so as not to overload <br />sedimentation ponds MB-1 and MB-2R, and to ensure that water is dischazged in compliance <br />with MCC's CDPS discharge permit. MCC routed most of the mine inflow water to the NW <br />Panels sealed sump. <br />As pumping continued throughout WY99, the quality of the water from the Lone Pine pipeline <br />has been good. There were no exceedances of the CDPS discharge limits or failures of the <br />biomonitoring tests during WY99. <br />• The NW Panels sealed sump was assumed to be full (about 375 acre-feet) during WY99, as <br />MCC pumped water into the NW Panels sealed sump at about the same rate as water was <br />pumped out of the sump. <br />Samples of Mine Water Inflows <br />During WY99, sampling of mine water inflows was hampered by the location of the inflows. <br />The fault inflows occurred at low places in the mine floor, which allowed mixing of belt line <br />water, process water, road maintenance (magnesium chloride application), and rock dusting <br />operations to mix with the inflow water. Consequently, a representative sample of the inflows <br />could not be obtained and the outflows from the mine via the Lone Pine Pipeline (discharge point <br />013) were the only mine water samples obtained during WY99. However, the quality of the <br />inflows should not have changed since the major inflow event of January 1997. <br />Mine Water Balance <br />Figure 6 shows the mine water balance components for WY99. Inflows from the 14 SEHG fault <br />and the B East Mains fault continued to have a significant impact on the mine water balance. <br />North Fork diversions of 434 acre-feet were higher than in WY98, which is reasonable <br />considering that mine production was higher. The total volume of water entering the mine from <br />pond FW-1, inflows from the 14SEHG fault and the B East Mains fault, and other minor inflows <br />• was approximately 657 acre-feet. <br />831-031.510 Page 20 Wright Water Engineers <br />