_INSPECTION - C1981019 ‎(31)‎

• Permit No: C1981019
• IBM Index Class Name: INSPECTION
• Doc Name: Inspection Report
• Inspection Date: 1/22/2008
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Colowyo C-1981-019
22 January 2008�
Pg 4/6
Backfilling and Grading: - The reclamation and backfilling operations in the East Pit
were inaccessible at the time of the inspection due to snow. The 101 dragline was
sitting on the East Pit highwall at the time of the inspection but it was not operating. It
does not appear that it has moved a great deal since my last inspection in
December.
- The top of the West Pit overburden stockpile still needs to be removed to the new
approved elevation as permitted in Technical Revision 63.
- Colowyo is hauling material from the current operations at the south end of the
West Pit to the north end of the pit. This area appears to be coming together nicely
and Colowyo may be able to make a good deal of headway in the West Pit
reclamation beginning this summer.
Support Facilities: -The facilities area was in good condition at the time of the
inspection. No problems were noted with the area.
- The Gossard Loadout appeared to be stable and in good condition at the time of
the inspection. No fugitive dust coming from the coal stockpiles or stacker tube at
the time of the inspection.
Topsoil: - The operator moved the topsoil stockpile at the south edge of the West Pit
to allow for pit advancement and work on the South Taylor Pit. This topsoil was
moved to the west edge of the East Pit. The operator has completed the work on
sloping the pile and seeding it.
- The operator, through the contractor Bower Brothers, was removing topsoil from the
box cut area of the South Taylor Pit. They have completed topsoil removal from the
X-Pod area just south of the Section 16 Pit (as approved through Technical Revision
65). The topsoil is being stockpiled in a new pile just south of the West Pit (west of the
Section 16 Pit) and next to the pile above the East Pit highwall. One concern with
removing topsoil at this point in the year is that the conditions will damage either the
chemical or physical properties of the topsoil (or both). Although it was cold and the
topsoil looked good at this point (it was not wet and muddy), the contractor was
dumping the topsoil and pushing it with a dozer. One problem that was noticed was
that some of the trucks appeared to be loaded very heavy. As this is topsoil that is
being hauled, the operator will max-out on volume rather than weight (meaning that
more volume could be added to the truck if possible). The problem with loading the
trucks heavy on the volume side is that there is some spillage that occurs as the trucks
bounce down the haul road. This spillage from the haul trucks ends up on the haul
road and is either compacted into the road or bladed away and the resource is lost.
Tony Tennyson contacted Bud Bower while we were at the site and informed him that
he needed to stop the practice of overloading the trucks. Bud Bower responded to
the affirmative. This will be checked on future inspections.
- Anson (who constructed the West Taylor and Section 28 Ponds) was also stripping
topsoil. They were currently stripping topsoil from the underdrain area of the East
Taylor Fill. The side slopes of the East Taylor Fill area were already stripped by Bower.
Anson was hauling and stockpiling the topsoil in a separate pile next to the Bower
pile (for payment purposes).