2008-04-22_PERMIT FILE - C1981017 ‎(11)‎

• Permit No: C1981017
• IBM Index Class Name: PERMIT FILE
• Doc Date: 4/22/2008
• Section_Exhibit Name: Introductory Items
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

. Mr. Jim Herron
(' Page 2
uses the U. S. Forest Service has designated the system of
haul roads now supporting the coal mining operation as
Forest Management Roads (at reduced widths) and two of the
five main mine portal pads have been identified as areas to
be utilized for ski support facilities.
The postmining land uses proposed in Chapter VI constitute
an equal or better economic or public use than was achieved
prior to mining operations. The U. S. Forest Service, in
its 1976 Thompson Creek Land Use Plan which includes Coal
Basin, identified the best land use alternatives for the
area as being livestock forage, wood products, water yield
and dispersed recreation. Mid-Continent believes that the
most judicious postmining land use management would emphasize
uses of outdoor recreation, grazing and wildlife habitat.
These are basically the same uses that existed prior to
mining with the primary difference being the increased
emphasis on outdoor recreation.
The premininq uses of the land (wildlife habitat, grazing
and recreation) will be retained upon the implementation of
the proposed postmining plan. The recreation use will be
C' materially improved while the grazing and wildlife habitat
uses will be maintained on about an equal basis. Since the
greater recreation use will be primarily during the winter
months when the wildlife have migrated to lower altitudes,
there should be little, if any, negative effect on that use.
Mid-Continent believes that the retention of the road beds
and mine portal pads without returning them to AOC will
improve the watershed of Coal Basin. Years of reclamation
activities during the active mining period along the roads
and around the mine portal pads consisting of tree planting,
re-seeding and improved drainage systems will cause them to
be almost as errosion resistant as the adjacent undisturbed
areas. To tear them up after mining ceases in attempts to
attain AOC would result in large areas of newly disturbed
land that would greatly increase the discharge of suspended
solids to ground or surface waters in the basin for many
years. The majority of these roads and pads were built 25
years ago and no topsoil was saved- if they were returned to
AOC by pulling up the material that was downsloped this
would leave a very marginal soil medium to attempt to reclaim.
It would be many years, if at all, before a vegetation cover
could be established. The potential sediment degradation of
the watershed. would be disastrous. Any obstructions along
such steep hillsides as exist in Coal Basin, such as the
C roads and portal pads, retard the rate of flow from spring
thaws and summer precipitation events just as the natural
terraces or benches do. This, in turn, decreases the amounts
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