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wheatgrass, Colorado wildrye, cheatgrass - annual forb, and big sagebrush- greasewood. <br />These communities comprise a mosaic controlled by soil type, topography, and past <br />and present land uses. Historic grazing practices may have contributed to the extent of <br />the cheatgrass - annual forb vegetation type throughout the permit area. The permit area <br />is currently used as winter /spring range for domestic sheep. <br />Wildlife species found within the permit area include mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), <br />pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americans), and sage grouse (Centrocercus <br />urophasianus). Numerous raptor species have been identified in the area. Species <br />include the ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis), turkey vulture (Cathortes aura), marsh <br />hawk (Cireus cyaneus), American kestrel (Falco sparverius), sharp- shinned hawk <br />(Accipter shiatus), burrowing owl (Spestyto cunieulaira), red - tailed hawk (Buteo <br />jamaicaensus), and golden eagle (Aquila chrysauetos). Bald eagles (Hliaeetus <br />leucocephalus) and peregrine falcons (Falco seregrinus) are known to migrate through <br />the area. Large white - tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) towns exist in the area of <br />the refuse disposal sites. <br />Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans <br />The Deserado Mine is an underground operation utilizing both continuous miners and <br />longwall mining equipment to extract the "D" (upper) and "B" (lower) coal seams. <br />Mining operations conducted during previous permit terms have extracted the D seam. <br />D seam mining was completed, and B seam mining commenced in 1999, and will <br />continue during the current permit term. <br />Raw coal is transported out of the mine by conveyor to the D /B- Portal Area wash plant <br />where the coal is crushed and cleaned. The coal is then transported 3.1 miles to the rail <br />loadout facility via an over -land conveyor system. The coal is conveyed to the slot <br />storage building, which can store up to 25,000 tons of coal. From this building coal is <br />conveyed 1,800 feet to the loadout area. Clean coal is then transported by electric rail <br />to the Bonanza Power Plant in Vernal, Utah. <br />The rail loop and facilities within the rail loop were removed from the permit and the <br />reclamation plan with the approval of Permit Revision No. 04. The loadout tower will <br />remain in the permit and reclamation plan as will all of the structures that convey the <br />coal to that point. Blue Mountain Energy will keep all operations related to the mining <br />operations and the loading and transport of coal separate. The decision to remove the <br />rail loop and associated facilities was based on IBLA decision 94 -366. <br />Coal processing waste generated at the wash plant facility is trucked approximately 3.6 <br />miles to the refuse disposal area located east of the rail loadout in the northeast portion <br />of the permit area. The refuse disposal area includes eleven subareas of refuse <br />deposition. The first subarea (RP -1) was reclaimed in late 1990, implementing a <br />revegetation study that involved variations from the required four feet of cover. <br />Combined Refuse Area RP- 2/3/4, and the adjacent Refuse Area RP -5A are currently <br />5 <br />