2008-11-24_REVISION - C1996083 (6)

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The mine facilities have been constructed near the old Bowie townsite. Construction included haul and access roads, a conveyor belt system, mine and facility benches, vent shafts, a truck loadout facility, refuse piles, and various drainage and sediment control facilities. Approval of Permit Revision No. 3 added a downhill conveyor, coal stockpile and coal haul truck loading system to the facilities. In addition, the mine site entrance was relocated to the east of the original entrance. Coal was being exported from the truck loadout facility onto old State Highway 133 to the Bowie No. 1 Mine train loadout. However, approval of Permit Revision No. 6 permitted the construction of a unit train loadout. Coal travels by covered conveyor line to the coal stockpile at the bottom of the hill and, then, to the unit train loadout. In Permit Revision No. 7, the operator received approval to construct the B-2 coal seam portal bench and to use haul trucks to bring coal from the B-2 coal seam portal bench up to the beginning point of the conveyor line on the D-2 coal seam portal bench. From there, the B-2 coal traveled through the conveyor line system to the unit train loadout. With the approval of Technical Revision No. 34, a conveyor was constructed to bring coal up from the B-2 coal seam portal bench to the D-2 coal seam portal bench. A drainage and sediment control system has been constructed. The system consists of ditches, culverts, sedimentation ponds and alternate sediment control areas referred to as "small area exemptions". Specific details regarding the designs for these systems are presented in Section 2.05, as are references to other sections of the permit application document which present additional design details. For the currently approved operations, all available topsoil has been salvaged and stored prior to facility construction. Approval of Permit Revision No. 6 permitted a variance from salvaging all of the topsoil at the train loadout coverfill stockpile. However, the variance was not needed since there was no excess soil material after construction of the unit train loadout. Salvaged topsoil from the facilities areas was placed in a topsoil storage pile which has a capacity of approximately 270,000 cubic yards. Topsoil which was salvaged prior to the refuse pile construction was stored in another pile which has an approximate storage capacity of 3,111 cubic yards. Specific details regarding the topsoil salvage volumes are presented on Page 2.05-34 of the Bowie No. 2 Mine permit application. Some surface blasting occurred during construction of the facilities. Details regarding the blasting plan are presented within Section 2.05 of the permit application. The Bowie No. 2 Mine is located in areas known to be subject to mass movement processes. Extensive design efforts and regulatory review were implemented prior to the approval of the Bowie No. 2 Mine and during the review of Permit Revision No. 3 and Permit Revision No. 7. The details regarding the geotechnical aspects of the mining and reclamation plan are presented within Volume VII of the permit application document. The Bowie No. 2 Mine will be reclaimed to the post-mining land uses of rangeland, wildlife habitat and industrial. The approval of Permit Revision No. 6 added cropland and pastureland to the post-mining land uses. All facilities areas and some roads will be reclaimed to reestablish the approximate original contour of the land. All portals, shafts and monitoring wells will be backfilled, in accordance with the applicable rules and with the reclamation details provided within the permit application. Some of the roads which existed prior to mining will be retained to serve the postmining land use. Topsoil will be redistributed on all disturbed areas. The soils will be tested for nutrient deficiencies, and fertilizers will be applied as needed. Revegetation will be implemented using the seed mixes approved. Four permanent seed mixes are approved. One mix will be applied to areas which were identified as Meadow prior to mining, and another seed mix will be applied to the areas identified as Juniper Woodland and Mixed Shrub communities prior to mining. These two seed mixes, designated as seed mix no. 2 and seed mix no. 3, were revised in Permit 18