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Similar to monitoring well H-10, since October 1999 and during 2000 through 2004 no water <br />was measured in well B-6. The lack of water in the H-10 and B-6 wells maybe due to a <br />blockage or another problem in the wells. The scenario that both wells failed at the same time <br />appears, however, unlikely. Performance and condition of the bailer when raised during <br />sampling do not suggest the wells were blocked. <br />A more plausible explanation is that because these two wells are located in two different <br />drainages and both are dry suggests that the water level, thus inflow, into the abandoned <br />Somerset Mine has simply decreased for some unknown reason. Curiously, this decrease is <br />coincident with the time of the mine fire event and pumping from the North Fork into the <br />Sanborn Creek Mine. Flows also ceased just a few months earlier from Spring 8 (believed to <br />have been from the old Oliver Mine D-seam workings). <br /> <br />However, unlike the Oliver Mine, there is no portion of the abandoned B- and C-seam workings <br />of the Somerset Mine that overlie the Sanbom Creek Mine. Rather, there is more than 200 <br />horizontal feet of unmined B-seam coal barrier pillar separating and isolating the Somerset Mine <br />B workings from the Sanborn Creek mine B workings. <br />OMLLC has held the belief through the years that should wells H-10 and B-6 continue to remain <br />dry, the data supports the conclusion that the Somerset mine will continue to have a negligible <br />affect on the hydrologic balance of the region. (See the following discussion regazding the E2B <br />water transfer well for additional ground water discussions.) <br />® In the fall of 2004, the Elk Creek Mine D seam development was to have intercepted the vicinity <br />of the B-6 well. Because of the MSHA requirement to seal interconnecting mine openings in <br />order to isolate mine atmospheres, the B-6 well was plugged with concrete on October 19, 2004. <br />Upon entering the vicinity of the well, the steel casing was never actually encountered by the D <br />seam continuous miner section and the casing remains intact within a coal pillar, <br />BC-1 Well -Lower Bear Creek Canvon -Alluvium/Colluvium <br />The BC-1 Well is located in the shallow alluvium/colluvium located near the entrance to Bear <br />Creek canyon in the vicinity of the railroad tressel. The purpose of the well is to monitor <br />possible groundwater changes down gradient from the Elk Creek Mine D seam mining activities <br />in the Bear Creek drainage azea. In addition, it is important to note that the BC-1 well is also <br />located down-gradient from the old Somerset Mine workings as well. <br />Groundwater in this ephemera] drainage appears closely linked to the variable surface water flow <br />found nearby in Beaz Creek. Soon after Bear Creek goes dry, typically, so does the BC-1 well. <br />During 2005 Bear Creek exhibited normal spring snow melt flows followed by usual complete <br />absence of flow during the dry season. A well sample was obtained earlier in the second quarter <br />on June 17, 2005, rather than the normal third quarter. Had the attempt to obtain the sample <br />occurred in the third quarter it is likely there would have been insufficient water to sample. <br />Analysis ofthe BC-1 data suggests no anomalies. <br />11 <br />