Laserfiche WebLink
• INTRODUCTION <br />The Tvventymile Coal Company (TCC) Foidel Creek Mine is located approximately 25 miles southwest of <br />Steamboat Springs, Colorado at the south end of Twentymile Park (Figure I ). The associated Fish Creek Tipple <br />is located approximately 20 miles southwest of Steamboat Springs at the north end of Twenlymile Park. The <br />TCC surface facilities cover approximately 330 acres. The Fish Creek Tipple area covers approximately 15 <br />acres. The trench and berm rockfall mitigation structures located north of the primary TCC facilities cover <br />approximately 30 acres. The coal refuse pile at TCC covers approximately 70 acres. Other associated satellite <br />TCC support facilities contribute approximately an additional 10 to I S acres of disturbance. <br />The Foidel Creek Mine portals and surface facility areas are bordered by spoil from the Colorado Yampa Coal <br />Company (CYCC) strip mines. The portals are faced-up in the down dip low-wall of the strip mine. Hydrologic <br />monitoring was initiated in the area during 1979. The Foidel Creek Mine was established in 1983, however, <br />surface coal mining has been conducted in the area since the 1960's. The Fish Creek Tipple was constructed in <br />1974. This report covers the hydrologic monitoring for the 1997 Water Year. Previous monitoring results are <br />presented in prior Annual Hydrologic Reports. The TCC Foidel Creek Mine hydrologic monitoring program and <br />the following discussions are divided into eight parts: 1) bedrock groundwater, 2) alluvial groundwater, 3) <br />surface water, 4) natural springs, 5) spoil springs, 6) mine water dischazge sites, 7) NPDES discharge sites, and <br />8) mine inflow monitoring. Fish Creek Alluvial Valley Floor mining area hydrology data has been presented <br />• previously in the First Half 1994 and Second Half 1994 Subsidence Reports submitted to the Division by TCC. <br />Monitoring site locations and elevations are shown on Figure 2. For required monitoring frequencies and <br />associated parameter lists the reader is referred to Permit No. C-82-056 Exhibit 14. The 1997 Water Year data <br />collected at each monitoring site is presented as Tables 1 through 49 and 51 through 65. Data values returned <br />during 1997 which lie beyond previously established ranges are highlighted on the tables providing 1997 Water <br />Year data. Table 50 provides a historical summary of flow rate data for the surface water monitoring sites. <br />Table 66 provides low-quality coal haulage figures for the 1997 Water Year. Statistical summaries of <br />monitoring site's period of record data sets follow the 1997 Water Year data. Period of record statistical <br />summaries of water levels or flows as appropriate are presented as well. Figures I and 2 depict the general <br />location of [he project area and specific monitoring locations associated with the TCC operations. Figures 3 <br />through l 19 provide graphical representations of selected data. Figure 120 presents data documented during the <br />1997 Mine Inflow Study. <br />Foidel Creek Flows adjacent to the TCC Foidel Creek Mine surface facilities and receives treated ealuent from a <br />series of sediment ponds established al the facility. Mine site drainage is controlled through seven (7) sediment <br />ponds (Ponds T, B, C, D, E, F, and G). Mine water is discharged from the mine and routed through Pond D <br />prior to being discharged to Foidel Creek. The Fish Creek drainage is located north of the Foidel Creek Mine <br />surface facilities area and overlies tracts, which have been longwall mined. Mine water is discharged into Fish <br />• <br />