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