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A sediment control system, including a sediment pond, drainage ditches and culverts, had been <br />constructed to control surface runoff from the portal and surface facilities areas. Topsoil had been <br />salvaged and stockpiled for use in the final reclamation. <br />Final reclamation at the Bear No. 3 Mine entailed facilities removal, portal backfilling, and regrading the <br />mine bench and face-up area to a stable configuration. The regraded area was ripped, topsoiled and <br />revegetated. The post-mining land use for the Bear No. 3 Mine is primarily wildlife habitat, with a limited <br />residential use of the facilities area. <br />There is an area just to the west of the Bear No. 3 Mine portals where smoldering coal, a landslide and a <br />spring are all occurring simultaneously. During several field inspections, it has been observed that coal is <br />smoldering in an area just west of the Bear No. 3 portals, at the level of the upper bench. The Division <br />conducted a surface evaluation of this area and found elevated surface temperatures associated with vent <br />fractures at the C-seam coal bed level. Caution when in this area was recommended. The Division will <br />continue to monitor the situation. <br />A landslide is located in this same area which has been gradually slumping for the last several years. The <br />slide, just to the west of, and, perhaps, affecting the Bear No. 3 Mine disturbed area, has exposed a <br />portion of the C-seam coal bed and a couple of steel beams, presumably, of the westernmost C-seam <br />portal of the abandoned Edwards Mine. The Division will continue to monitor this situation too. <br />There is also a spring in this area that is coming from a point on the hillside near one of the backfilled <br />Edwards Mine B-seam portals. The origin of this spring water is not known but the water temperature as <br />it comes out of the hillside was, originally, in the mid to upper 80 degree Fahrenheit range but has, in the <br />last few years, measured about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. These high temperatures are very unusual for <br />ground water. Bear Coal Company is passing the spring water through a spring water treatment pond and <br />into the North Fork of the Gunnison River. The spring water is dark orange in color but has been found to <br />be in compliance with water quality standards. The Division will continue to monitor this situation. <br />The operation and reclamation plan presented in the original permit application included requests for <br />variances from approximate original contour (steep slope mining), mining within 300 feet of a residence, <br />and disturbance within 100 feet of a perennial stream. The Division approved these variances, as <br />described in Sections A and B of this Findings document. Appropriate mitigation or alternative plans, <br />and waivers have been incorporated into the permit application. <br />10