2011-12-20_INSPECTION - C1980007

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December 7, 2011 C -1980 -007 /West Elk Mine JRS Number of Partial Inspection this Fiscal Year: 7 Number of Complete Inspections this Fiscal Year: 2 Page 4 of 11 subsequent inspections. ROADS – Rule 4.03 ; Co nstruction 4.03.1(3)/4.03.2(3); Drainage 4.03.1(4)/4.03.2(4); Surfacing and Maint enance 4.03.1(5) and (6)/4.03.2(5) and (6); Rec lamation 4.03.1(7)/4.03.2(7): - The main access/haul road is a paved road up to the office area. The section of the road up to the Sylvester Gulch facilities is a dirt/gravel road. The entire length of the road was well maintained and stable. No rutting or erosional problems were noted on the dirt portion of the road. - The old drill road that leads to the upper portion of the RPEE was well maintained and stable. This road is being used as access for the construction of the refuse pile and buttress. No erosional problems were noted on this road. Chris Nyikos indicated that this road will probably be reclaimed once the main haul road has been constructed. - MCC was working on the haul road for the RPEE, which is in the RPEE slide area. See “Slides and Other Damage” below for more details. SLIDES and DAMAGE - Rule 4.12: - MCC was working on remediation of the slide area below the pad by stacking tube 2 (ST -02). They were simultaneously installing a F rench drain system and rebuilding the pad and outslopes. The contractor was moving in good fill material that was previously excavated from the slide area and compacting it in shallow lifts of 12 inches or less (the lifts I observed being spread and compa cted were more in the eight inch range). Once the French drain is installed and the operator will reestablish the pad, which is used for stockpiling coal. Chris Nyikos estimated that there was approximately 16,000 cubic yards of material that remained be fore the pad would be complete. The operator was using an excavator (with approximately a five cubic yard bucket), a D6 dozer, 2 -30 ton articulated trucks and an 815 compactor. - MCC was also working on the RPE slide area. They have excavated the entire slide area and are placing a filter blanket of 3/8” minus rock under the slide area (at the base, below all of the identified seeps) and along the slope up to the top of the fill. The design called for a filter blanket that was three feet thick. MCC is b uilding a five foot thick filter blanket to allow for contamination of up to one foot on the top and bottom of the blanket. The plan is to intercept all of the water that comes from these seeps, allow it to flow down the filter blanket and out into a syst em of ditches and probably into a sediment pond. Chris Nyikos estimated that there was approximately 45,000 cubic yards of material remaining before the area would be backfilled. Once all of the material is replaced, MCC will reestablish the haul road fo r the RPEE. They were simultaneously working on the filter blanket and replacing the fill and on cleaning up the slide area along Highway 133. They were using two excavators and an excavator with a rock breaker to do this work. They were also segregatin g larger pieces of rock to be used in the RPEE buttress construction. MCC will stabilize the area then they plan on coming back into the area and finishing the work this summer, as conditions permit. SU PPORT FACILITIES - Rule 4.04: - The main faciliti es area appeared to be well maintained and stable. The Sylvester Gulch facilities areas were also inspected and found to be in good condition. - The unit train loadout area was well maintained and stable at the time of the inspection. There were no probl ems noted at this site.