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Sandra Brown March 7, 2012 Page 5 the pressure head above the Bear and Edwards Mines. In approximately 2001 -2002 the pipeline was dismantled and the location of the pipeline and discharge point was reclaimed. The local groundwater regime has since stabilized. The seep continues to discharge at a reduced flow of less than 5 gpm but continues to be elevated in temperature (recent measurements taken monthly in 2011 show an average 39.7° C or 103.5° F). In 1999 the Division approved TR -27 for the design and construction of a shallow water treatment pond to manage the seep discharge. A treatment pond was constructed during May and June 2001 in accordance with the plan presented on Drawing 11 -4 of the permit document. The spring water is piped into the pond, passively treated and then discharged into the North Fork of the Gunnison River. Bear Mine No. 3 has two CDPS discharge points under their current permit. Outfall 001 to the North Fork of the Gunnison River is described in the CDPS permit as mine water discharge. Outfall 001 is the external outfall from the treatment pond. Outfall 004 to the North Fork of the Gunnison River is described in the CDPS permit as surface runoff water discharge and is the external outfall from Pond 4. Pond 4 has never discharged since its construction. The slide area remains the same at the Bear Mine yard and was not reworked or reclaimed with regard to the escarpment or colluvial slide material. The seep discharge location also is unchanged. Water ownership still remains undetermined and is probably irrelevant at this point. The source of the water is likely groundwater discharge beneath the steep colluvial slope. There may be some pooling of groundwater inflow in the B -seam gob area contributing to the discharge. Some still postulate that the discharge is from the Edwards Mine portals. If this is the case then it is noteworthy that the Edwards Mine and associated portals were a "Pre -Law" mine that was operated and reclaimed prior to the State of Colorado's Permanent Coal Regulatory Program. Pre -law refers to those lands that are mined prior to the passage of the Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act and the Federal interim rules which took effect on May 5, 1978. For the lands mined prior to the passage of SMCRA, the Colorado Open Mining Land Reclamation Act of 1973 as amended in 1976, regulated coal mining activities. The Edwards Mine operated in the 1950's and was closed in 1964 prior to the passage of both of these important Acts. When BCC started the Bear No. 3 Mine in the early 1980's, the operator decided to use the old Edwards (Clark) Mine C -seam portals for access to the C -seam coal, rather than construct their own portals. As previously described the C -seam portals have been properly sealed and there has never been any discharge. The Edwards B -seam portals were undoubtedly sealed sometime in the 1960's. If the water is discharging from the Edwards B -seam portals as postulated, then reclamation liability is not relevant and difficult to assess since this was a Pre -Law mine disturbance. The spring remains warm to this day suggesting two plausible explanations 1) a mine fire or 2) a geothermal heat source heating groundwater inflow or mine pool as it passes through or near the B -seam workings. The Bear Mine was evaluated in the fall of 2003 by our Inactive Mines Reclamation Program for the purpose of determining whether a fire on the site was eligible for Abandoned Mined Land funding. At the time of the evaluation, steam was observed to be emanating from fractures in the ground, from an area that is presumed to be the previous location of the C Seam entries. The majority of the venting features appear to align with each other,