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The original operator was Bruin Mining Company, which, on August 22, 1997, was changed to Sherpa <br />Paonia, Inc. On March 20, 1998, the operator was changed to Bowie Resources Limited. Finally, <br />Bowie Reources LLC became the operator with the issuance of Succession of Operator No. 2. <br />Originally, the mine began longwall production in the D-2 coal seam. The D-seam portal bench <br />contains the D-seam portals, the mine's crusher/screener structures, the mine office, main warehouse <br />and other operational facilities and a coal stockpile area. Coal was originally trucked offsite to the <br />Bowie No. 1 unit train loadout but now is transported on a downhill conveyor system from the D-seam <br />portal bench to the Bowie No. 2 unit train loadout. <br />Currently, the mine extracts coal from the B-2 coal seam. Separate B-seam mine portals, portal bench <br />and associated structures were constructed. The B Seam portal bench is approximately 250 feet lower <br />in elevation than the D Seam portal bench. Bowie Resources named the B-seam mining as the Bowie <br />No. 3 Mine, although the permit is still considered the Bowie No. 2 Mine by the Division. Coal from <br />the B-seam workings is transported by conveyor from the B-seam portal bench up to the D-seam portal <br />bench, where it is crushed and screened to size. Then, it moves by downhill conveyor to the main coal <br />stockpile area at the bottom of the hill. A wash plant is situated next to the main coal stockpile, if <br />needed. The coal is, then, transported by a completely enclosed overhead conveyor to the unit train <br />loadout. <br />Sediment control for the mine site consists of sediment ponds A, B, C, D, F, J and K, small area <br />exemption areas and the culverts, ditches and berms that direct disturbed area runoff to these treatment <br />facilities and undisturbed runoff around the mine site. <br />BRL has three approved coal waste stockpile areas, numbered 1, 2 and 4. In addition, construction of <br />coal waste stockpile no. 3 is pending. Through Technical Revision No. 61, Bowie Resources received <br />approval to increase the slope of the upper benches at coal waste stockpile no. 2. The stability <br />demonstration had been made previously in Technical Revision No. 56. A proposal to increase the <br />height of coal waste pile no. 4 is pending in Technical Revision No. 64. <br />The mine plans for the D-seam and for the B-seam have been revised several times during the life of <br />the Bowie No. 2 Mine. The B-seam mine plan was most recently revised in Permit Revision No. 10 <br />(PR-10) and in Permit Revision No. 11 (PR-11). In PR-10, the B-seam mining plan was extended to <br />the north but within the approved permit area. One longwall panel was lengthened and three new <br />longwall panels were added to the mine plan. The orientation of the longwall panels remained basically <br />east-west. The new mine plan would bring longwall mining to within 2500 feet and mining-induced <br />subsidence to within 1500 feet of the Bruce Park Dam and Terror Creek Reservoir. Bowie Resources <br />provided demonstrations that the effects of subsidence and mine-induced seismicity would not <br />materially damage the dam or reservoir. A seismic network was set up to verify the prediction and <br />seismic reports are submitted quarterly to the Division. The operator has approval to mine underneath <br />Dove Cave since a plan is in place to support the cave from the effects of subsidence. <br />Because of difficult mining conditions, the B-seam mine plan was again revised in PR-11 so that the <br />orientation of the future longwall panels would trend basically north-south instead of east-west. <br />Because several longwall panels were proposed to be extended beyond the current permit boundary to <br />the north, the permit boundary was also extended to the north through a Federal coal lease <br />modification to Federal Coal Lease COC 61209, which added 560 acres to the permit area. With the