_INSPECTION - C1981019 (54) - Laserfiche WebLink

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July 19,2010 C-1981-019/Colowyo Coal Mine JRS -The West Pit Pond(NPDES 008A)and its presettling cell were dry at the time of the inspection. The pond embankment was well vegetated and no erosional problems were noted. -The East Taylor Pond(NPDES 01 OA)contained water approximately two feet below the weep hole and was not discharging. The pond embankment was well vegetated and stable and no erosional problems were noted. The East Taylor Pond receives all of the runoff from the current West Pit reclamation. -The West Taylor Pond(NPDES O1 IA)was discharging through the weep hole at the time of the inspection. The discharge looked clean and had an electrical conductivity of 860 umhos/cm and a pH of 8.3. Water was flowing into the pond from the A-A' and B-B' underdrain locations of the West Taylor Fill. The pond embankment was well vegetated and stable and no erosional problems were noted. -The Section 28 Pond(NPDES 012A)was dry at the time of the inspection. The pond embankment was fairly well vegetated and stable at the time of the inspection. The bare areas of the embankment that were reseeded last fall had some additional growth this year. GENERAL MINE PLAN COMPLANCE: -The 101 dragline was sitting on highwall of the East Pit. It has been inactive for some time. -The 102 dragline was sorting rock in the West Pit. -The 103 dragline was uncovering C-Seam overburden in the West Pit. -The 114 shovel was removing E2-Seam overburden in the box-cut of the South Taylor Pit. The overburden was being dumped in the B-B' underdrain area of the West Taylor Pit. -The 115 shovel was removing overburden in the box-cut of the South Taylor Pit. OTHER(SPECIFY): On the afternoon of 19 July 2010 the Division met with Colowyo staff regarding several outstanding revisions. Kurtis Blunt,Matt Guptill,Ryan Pawlowski and Jennifer Sekulski of Colowyo and Tom Peterson(a consultant) attended the meeting. The first revision that was discussed was Technical Revision 81. TR-81 deals with changes to the East and West Taylor Fills, changes to the post-mining topography in the South Taylor Pit and changes to the hydrology in the South Taylor Pit area. The Division completed a second adequacy review for TR-81 and sent an electronic copy to Colowyo on 16 July 2010. The discussions on TR-81 centered around the Division's second adequacy letter and what Colowyo would need to provide to resolve the issues identified. Colowyo had several draft maps that appeared to address most of the Divisions concerns. The remaining work for Colowyo on TR-81 will be centered on the SEDCAD modeling required for the proposed changes. The Division and Colowyo also discussed Technical Revision 78 and the Prospect watershed. TR-78 dealt with several temporary sediment control structures in the Prospect Watershed. The revision was an abatement step in Notice of Violation CV-2008-004. The Division sent a fourth adequacy letter to Colowyo on 9 July 2010. TR-78 was meant to address short-term solutions to the hydrologic concerns in the Prospect watershed and Colowyo had committed to providing the Division with a long-term plan to address these hydrologic concerns. Since the proposed short-term solutions would,for the most part,be eliminated in 2010,the Division recommended that Colowyo withdraw TR-78 and focus on providing the Division with a long-term plan that addressed the hydrologic concerns of the Prospect Watershed. Colowyo withdrew TR-78 on 22 July 2010. The Due date for the long-term plan to address the Prospect Watershed is 10 August 2010. Number of Partial Inspection this Fiscal Year: 1 Number of Complete Inspections this Fiscal Year: 0 Page 4 of 13