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• Amore plausible explanation is that because these two wells are located in two different <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 Sanborn Creek Mine. Rather, there is more than 200 <br />horizontal feet of unmined B-seam coal separating and isolating the Somerset Mine workings <br />from the Sanborn Creek mine workings. <br />drainages and both aze dry suggests that the water level, thus inflow, in the abandoned Somerset <br />Mine has simply decreased for some unknown reason. Curiously, this decrease is coincident with <br />the time of the mine fire event and pumping from the North Fork into the Sanborn Creek Mine. <br />Flows also ceased just a few months earlier from Spring 8 (believed to have been from the old <br />Oliver Mine D-seam 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 Canyon -Alluvium/Colluvium <br />The BC-1 Well is located in the shallow alluvium/colluvium near the entrance to Bear Creek <br />canyon in the vicinity of the railroad tressel. The purpose of the well is to monitor possible <br />groundwater changes down gradient from the Elk Creek mine D seam mining activities in the <br />Bear Creek drainage area. In addition, it is important to note that the BC-1 well is also located <br />down-gradient from the old Somerset Mine workings as well. <br />Groundwater in this ephemeral drainage appears closely linked to the variable surface water flow <br />found neazby in Bear Creek. Soon after Bear Creek goes dry, typically, so does the BC-1 well. <br />During 2004 Bear Creek had minimal flows because of prevailing drought conditions. A well <br />sample was obtained earlier in the second quarter on June 22, 2004, rather than the normal third <br />quarter. Had the attempt to obtain the sample occurred in the third quarter it is likely the well <br />would have been dry. <br />Analysis of the data suggests no anomalies. <br />EC-14, EC-15 Wells -Elk Creek- Alluvium/Coluuvium <br />The EC-14 well is located up gradient of the EC-15 well. The EC-14 well is located in <br />undisturbed alluvium/colluvium up-gradient from the Elk Creek mine surface facility but down- <br />. gradient from the eventual D seam mining area located in the upper reaches of Elk Creek. The <br />EC-15 well is located in alluvium/colluvium located south of the D seam portal area but north of <br />the coal stockpile area. Changes in the hydrologic condition of shallow Elk Creek alluvial <br />groundwater due to mining activities could potentially be monitored from these two wells. <br />11 <br />