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III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII <br />999 <br />DECISION MEMO <br />Mountain Coal Company <br />West Elk Mine <br />Thermal Event Drilling Project Monitoring and Restoration Project <br />July 2000 <br />Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forests <br />Paonia Ranger District <br />Gunnison County, Colorado <br />I. INTRODUCTION <br />This document presents the decision to allow Mountain Coal Company (MCC) to <br />proceed with reclamation of National Forest System Lands (NFSL) distwbed during the <br />Thermal Event Drilling Project, to maintain a borehole monitoring network, and to <br />occupy NFSL with monitoring equipment and anabove-ground water pipeline. The <br />Mining, Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is requiring MCC to maintain the <br />monitoring network, equipment and pipeline by for about one yeaz, during the mining of <br />longwall panel 13A. <br />The lands involved in the thermal event monitoring and restoration project aze located in <br />the NW1/4, NWl/4 Section 28 and Nl/2, Section 29, T 13 S, R 90 W. Elevations range <br />from 7,800 feet to 8,000 feet above mean sea level. The topography is typified by rolling <br />hills intersected by ephemeral and intermittent drainages. The overstory vegetation <br />consists of mature oak brush with pockets of aspen. The understory consists of a mixture <br />of herbaceous vegetation. The GMUG Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest <br />Plan) shows these lands falling in Management Area SA which is managed for big game <br />winter range in non-forest azeas. Forest Plan direction for this management area includes <br />vegetation treatments that will enhance plant and animal diversity. Primary use of the <br />azea is limited dispersed recreation and livestock grazing. <br />II. BACKGROUND <br />Mountain Coal Company operates the West Elk Mine, an underground coal mining <br />operation located about 3 miles east of the town of Somerset, Colorado (see Figure 1). <br />MCC has been operating in the area since the early 1980s, and holds several Federal coal <br />leases, some of which encompass lands administered by the USDA-Forest Service, Grand <br />Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest (GMUG). Underground workings of the <br />