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<br />' Ingoing Water The production equipment utilizes water for dust control and cuttings removal <br />in roof bolting. Water used by equipment is based on 439 shifts worked by continuous miner <br />' sections and 158 shifts worked by the longwall. The continuous miner sections use 100 gpm <br />and operate about 4 hours per shift (the rest of the time is spent moving, etc.). The longwall <br />' equipment uses 300 gpm of water for about 9 hours per shift. <br />The amount of water entering the mine as ventilation intake air humidity is based on monthly <br />mean temperatures from Figure II.C-2 on page II.C-9 of the Mining Perrnit and the yearly <br />mean relative humidity of 56°!o found on page II.E-1 of the Mining Permit. The absolute <br />' humidity, the actual amount of water in the air, is calculated from these data and an average <br />ventilation quantity of 450,000 cubic feet per minute. <br />' The amount of water entering the mine from the surrounding strata is partially estimated by <br />identifying all known seep areas and estimating the flow rate from each. During January <br />' 1994, a survey of the accessible areas of the mine workings was conducted to identify the <br />location and flow rates of all seeps. The locations and flow rates of the seeps are shown on <br />Plate 1. Due to the very low flow rates measured, the flow rates are shown in gallons per <br />day. Most, if not all, of this water leaves the mine in the form of humidity in the ventilation air <br />flow. There are very few locations in the mine that produce water over the long term. Most <br />wet areas encountered during mining flow for relatively short periods (hours or days), in the <br />form of profuse drips, and then gradually dry out as the flow stops and the ventilation air <br />carries the moisture out of the mine. These areas are generally associated with stackrock in <br />the roof. stackrock is a sandstone laminated with very thin layers of silty carbonaceous <br />material. These laminations range in thickness from a few inches to a few millimeters thick. <br />' Water in the stackrock appears to be connate in origin and not from the rechargeable <br />groundwater systems. Virtually all of the geologic water enters the mine from the surrounding <br />strata from broken rock in the gob behind the longwall face. BME believes there was <br />1 insignificant amount of seepage during the 1998-1999 water year. <br />' The smallest quantity of water entering the mine is the incidental category. This category <br />includes leakage from water lines, dust control watering in the haulage entries, and <br />washdown water used in the slope and other locations. It has been assumed that 10% of the <br />' water used for production equipment will be used under this category. <br />Outgoing Water As coal is mined, it is wet by dust control sprays on the continuous miners, <br />the longwall shearer and at transfer points along the conveyor belt system. This water is then <br />carried out of the mine as surface moisture on the raw coal. This added coal surface <br />' moisture represents a 2% increase in the raw coal moisture content. The raw coal tonnage <br />produced during this reporting period was 1,405,330 tons. <br />l0 <br />