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1BLA 96-90,96-91
<br />Principal Meridian, Las Animas County, Colorado. The shaft was intended to provide exhaust and ventilation for its
<br />underground mine workings known as the "First Left Longnvall Panel." These workings involved mining by the longwall
<br />method, which resulted in the removal of a series of 600-toot-wide panels running along the spike of the coal (N. 25° W.),
<br />adjacent to development mauls!; The southern edge of the panels and the adjacent development mains were 530 and 370
<br />Feet fivm the'fzam,' water well (Well No. 10), which is 300 feet south of their northern property line.
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<br />BRI's revised permit provided that "every reasonable attempt" would be made to eliminate or reduce the flow of ground
<br />water into the airshaft. Thus, when it drilled the shaft upwards from a total depth of 640 feet in January 1991, BRI sealed
<br />any frac,-tures in the sturoinding rock. prior to drilling, by injecting grout througta three drillholes and cased the open
<br />borehole, following drilling, with steel. Despite BRI's efforts, however, water, flowing at the rate of from % to 2-1/2 gallons
<br />per minute, was encountered at various elevations in the shaft, all of which were below the bottom of the Taturns' well.
<br />North of State Highway 12, BRI's airshaft is 355 feet northwest of the Tatums' water well. That well, which had
<br />historically used a windmill to bring water to the surface for livestock watering purposes, was constructed by the Tatum'
<br />predecessor-in-interest sometime before 1972. The well was determined on March 1, 1995, during a joint inspection by
<br />DMG and OSM, in the company ofTatums and BRI personnel, to be 145.1 feet deep. (Field Notes, dated March 1, 1995,
<br />at 1; see Letter to DMG from the Tatums, dated July 12, 1994 ("approximately 146 feet").) Thus, the well was completed
<br />in a ge ologic zone about 450 feet above the coal seam mined by BRI in the Raton Formation. Six-inch diameter casing was
<br />also found to be visible for a distance of at least 30 or 40 feet down in the well. At the time BRI's permit was issued in 1984,
<br />the well, which was not perrnitt?d by the Colorado Office of the State Engineer, Division of Water Resources, was listed in
<br />BRI's well survey as "not functioning." However, no record was made of the level or quantity of water in the well.
<br />Neverthelc,-is, BRI was required) in its pen-nit, to take appropriate mitigative measures, if its mining activities seriously
<br />affected the potential usage of any water well within I mile of its operations.
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<br />"The eviclence establishes that the Tatuns never used the water well; rUher it received only historic use. (Letter to
<br />DMG ti-orn the Tattuns, dated February 9,1993; "Investigation into Possible Adverse Impacts of Mining Operations on the
<br />Tatum Windmill Well," dated Jine 6, 1995, (June 1995 DMG Report) at 2.) Thompson stated, in his December 10, 1993,
<br />deposition, that he found the well inoperable on the various occasions that he observed it after February 1990, because "the
<br />mechanism that powers the windmill has been disconnected." (Deposition at 20.)
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<br />Tlme Tattuns have not asserted that they operated the well at any time during their ownership of their land or that it was
<br />ever in a condition to be operated. They claim only that they "had the windmill looked at in 1990
<br />151 IBLA 289
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