2011-02-10_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981012

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storage, office building, shop buildings, railroad tracks, 2 portals, conveyors, coal silos, substations, fans, air shafts, a water tank, a parking lot, four sediment ponds, ditches, culverts, roads, and a refuse disposal area. Surface facilities added as a result of permitting actions included a refuse disposal valley fill and sediment pond north of Colorado Highway 12, two new topsoil stockpiles, coal stockpiles, conveyors, and a preparation plant and thickener tank. Presently, the New Elk facility is going through a rehabilitation phase in anticipation of future mining of coal. At this time, no mine plan is approved and coal is not being actively mined other than what occurs from rehabilitation efforts underground. Past mining activities resulted in underground workings mainly to the south and east of Highway 12, although some older workings exist north and west of Highway 12. Coal was mined by both continuous miners and longwall mining methods. Only one seam, the Allen seam, was mined. A Refuse Disposal Area (RDA) was constructed north of Highway 12 as a valley fill. Currently, coal is not being processed at the New Elk Mine due to the cessation of operations at the Lorencito Canyon mine. During past processing operations, coal refuse was transported by conveyor over Highway 12 and deposited in the RDA north of the highway. Pond cleaning material and small quantities of rock are not approved to be added to the RDA, but were added to the original refuse pile, now referred to as the Development Waste Pile (DWP) southwest of the main mine entrance. The DWP reached its maximum size in late 2006 and was regraded, topsoiled, and reseeded. More recent permitting actions have approved another development waste pile (DWDA) immediately south of Highway 12 but north of the Purgatoire River at the mine site. Any coal waste produced from future mining and processing is conveyed to the RDA by the refuse conveyor belt that passes over Highway 12 to the RDA. Due to the anticipated use of many of the existing surface facilities and the addition of new facilities, much of the disturbed area at the mine site will not be cleared of structures and reclaimed until the completion of mining. When actual coal extraction ceased, the portals were temporarily sealed. In 2010, the East Portal, the East Portal vent shaft, two portals at the West Mine, the West Mine vent shaft, and the upper Apache Canyon vent shaft were breached to allow access of men and materials as well as ventilation airways. Final sealing and backfilling has not occurred at this time at the east portal. Two portal entries at the West Mine have been sealed in 2010. The West Mine vent fan continues to be used for ventilation. Upon reclamation, the bench areas at the mine will be graded to the approximate original contour. The disturbed areas at the mine will be topsoiled (depending on the area) or ripped, then seeded and mulched to establish a vegetative cover of a variety consistent with surrounding vegetation. The stream channel diversion of the Middle Fork of the Purgatoire River, which was approved under Permit Revision #1, is permanent and will remain as constructed. Monitoring has demonstrated that this work was successful and the reconstructed river channel is stable. Topsoil was salvaged from the disturbed area above the RDA during each successive movement of the clean water diversion ditch above the RDA. This material will be used in the reclamation of the RDA. A topsoil borrow area in the West Mine area, in addition to stockpiled topsoil, will be used to reclaim the areas of the existing and proposed surface facilities. Due to previous disturbance prior to the enactment of the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation 6