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• 3 <br />A total of 11,758.40 acres of Federal surface land, 13,795.0 acres of Federal coal and 85.2 <br />million tons of Federal coal remain within the current permit area. <br />The post mining land use within the currently approved mining plan area is rangeland and <br />wildlife habitat. <br />Mountain Coal Company, L.L.C. approached the USDA Forest Service with a proposal to <br />construct, operate and reclaim up to 168 methane drainage wells on 146 well pads, one <br />ventilation shaft and escapeway facility and the use or construction of approximately 22.6 <br />miles of associated roads on lands administered by the USDA Forest Service, Grand <br />Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests. The proposed project would be <br />completed in three phases, starting with the ventilation shaft and escapeway facility. The <br />USDA Forest Service elected to prepare the Deer Creek Shaft and E Seam Methane <br />Drainage Wells Project Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to document the effects of <br />Mountain Coal Company, L.L.C's overall proposal because of the scale of the proposed <br />surface disturbance and air quality concerns. The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation <br />and Enforcement (OSM) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) were cooperators <br />in the preparation of the EIS. <br />The quarterly reporting of methane emissions to BLM is considered confidential <br />information and can not be released to OSM. In the EIS the USDA Forest Service <br />40 estimated the volume of methane to be released from the E-seam drainage wells based <br />upon several assumptions and limited data provided by BLM for the B-seam. The <br />B-seam methane releases from vertical wells, horizontal and mine fans average 13 to 17 <br />million cubic feet a day. Horizontal systems are not expected to be used in the future <br />reducing the release of methane by 2 million cubic feet. Coal recovery has been <br />completed in the B-seam and the remaining recoverable Federal coal will come from the <br />E-seam. The E-seam is estimated to contain only 50 to 60 percent of the methane in the <br />B-seam and will average from 6.5 to 7.8 million cubic feet a day, or 2.4 to 2.8 billion <br />cubic feet of methane released per year. <br />The volume of methane released per year is an average for the life of the mine and may <br />vary year to year based upon geology and mining conditions and coal production rates. <br />Under normal longwall mining methods not all of the methane drainage wells will <br />function for the estimated twelve year life of the mine. As mining progresses to the next <br />panel in sequence, subsidence will eventually render the wells in the previously mined <br />panels inoperable. From past subsidence history it is estimated the methane drainage <br />wells in each panel should function for approximately two (2) years. <br />Due to the timing of Mountain Coal Company, L.L.C.'s operational needs, there are <br />three related mining plan modifications recommendations from OSM to the Assistant <br />Secretary Land and Minerals Management (ASLM) for the West Elk mine. All are <br />• covered by the USDA Forest Service's Deer Creek Shaft and E Seam Methane Drainage <br />Wells Project EIS.