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Revision No. 3 allowed the mining method to change to longwall mining. Mining is currently being <br />conducted in the B-2 coal seam. The construction of a coal wash plant was approved in Technical <br />Revision No. 27. Approval of Permit Revision No. 7 permitted the construction of support facilities in <br />order to mine the B-2 coal seam. The initial mine plan approval to mine the B-2 coal seam was obtained <br />through Permit Revision No. 8. In Permit Revision No. 9, the B-2 coal seam mine plan was amended. A <br />third panel was projected in the west section of the mine. The permit boundary was expanded to <br />encompass the entire Federal coal lease (COC 61209) boundary and two proposed lease modification <br />areas. No mining under Terror Creek was proposed. <br />The D-2 coal seam was accessed from three (3) entries which were constructed at an elevation of 6880 <br />feet above sea level. This is the elevation where the D-2 coal seam generally outcrops, within the Bowie <br />No. 2 permit area, and this elevation is approximately 800 feet above the old State Highway 133. The <br />main entries have been driven down-dip to the north, with the sub-mains being driven east and west from <br />the mains. <br />The B-2 coal seam is currently being accessed through three (3) mine entries. The B-2 coal seam portals <br />are located below and just to the east of the D-2 coal seam portals, at an approximate elevation of 6630 <br />feet. The development mining and longwall mining of the B-2 coal seam were approved in Permit <br />Revision No. 8. The B-2 coal seam mine plan was amended in Permit Revision No. 9. Final approval of <br />PR-10 will extend the B-seam mining to the north but still within the Federal Coal Lease COC-61209 <br />boundary. Approval of PR-11 will extend mining of the B-2 coal seam northward into the new Federal <br />Coal Lease COC-61209 modification area. Currently, total annual coal production has been capped at 6 <br />million tons per year. <br />The mine facilities have been constructed near the old Bowie townsite. Construction included haul and <br />access roads, a conveyor belt system, mine and facility benches, vent shafts, a truck loadout facility, <br />refuse piles, and various drainage and sediment control facilities. Approval of Permit Revision No. 3 <br />added a downhill conveyor, coal stockpile and coal haul truck loading system to the facilities. In addition, <br />the mine site entrance was relocated to the east of the original entrance. Coal was being exported from the <br />truck loadout facility onto old State Highway 133 to the Bowie No. 1 Mine train loadout. However, <br />approval of Permit Revision No. 6 permitted the construction of a unit train loadout. Coal travels by <br />covered conveyor line to the coal stockpile at the bottom of the hill and, then, to the unit train loadout. In <br />Permit Revision No. 7, the operator received approval to construct the B-2 coal seam portal bench and to <br />use haul trucks to bring coal from the B-2 coal seam portal bench up to the beginning point of the <br />conveyor line on the D-2 coal seam portal bench. From there, the B-2 coal traveled through the conveyor <br />line system to the unit train loadout. With the approval of Technical Revision No. 34, a conveyor was <br />constructed to bring coal up from the B-2 coal seam portal bench to the D-2 coal seam portal bench. <br />A drainage and sediment control system has been constructed. The system consists of ditches, culverts, <br />sedimentation ponds and alternate sediment control areas referred to as "small area exemptions". Specific <br />details regarding the designs for these systems are presented in Section 2.05, as are references to other <br />sections of the permit application document which present additional design details. <br />For the currently approved operations, all available topsoil has been salvaged and stored prior to facility <br />construction. Approval of Permit Revision No. 6 permitted a variance from salvaging all of the topsoil at <br />the train loadout coverfill stockpile. However, the variance was not needed since there was no excess soil <br />material after construction of the unit train loadout. Salvaged topsoil from the facilities areas was placed <br />in a topsoil storage pile which has a capacity of approximately 270,000 cubic yards. Topsoil which was <br />salvaged prior to the refuse pile construction was stored in another pile which has an approximate storage <br />capacity of 3,111 cubic yards. Specific details regarding the topsoil salvage volumes are presented on <br />Page 2.05-34 of the Bowie No. 2 Mine permit application. <br />18