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PHASE 11 <br />Rule 3.03.1(2)(b) states, "Up to eighty -five percent of the applicable bond amount shall be released upon <br />the establishment of vegetation which supports the approved postmining land use and which meets the <br />approved success standard for cover... based on statistically valid data collected during a single year of <br />the liability period ". In regard to Phase 11 bond release, Rule 3.03.2(3)(b) also states, " No more than <br />sixty (60) percent of the bond shall be released so long as the lands to which the release would be <br />applicable are contributing suspended solids to stream flow or runoff outside the permit area in excess of <br />pre- mining levels as determined by baseline data or in excess of levels determined on adjacent non- <br />mined areas ". <br />The approved reclamation plan calls for an industrial /commercial post- mining land use. For <br />industrial /commercial post- mining land use, the ground cover of living plants shall be adequate to <br />control erosion (Rule 4.15.10(2)). Routt County Road and Bridge Department defined the seed mix to <br />be used on the regraded slopes within the County right -of -way, specification of gravel on the <br />parking /snow storage area, and pavement on the roadway. <br />PHASE III <br />Rule 3.03.1(2)(c) states that the final portion of performance bond, "shall be released when the permittee <br />has successfully completed all surface coal mining reclamation operations in accordance with this <br />approved reclamation plan, and the final inspection procedures of 3.03.2 have been satisfied. This shall <br />not be before the expiration of the period specified for revegetation responsibility in 3.02.3." Rule <br />3.03.1(4) states, "No bond shall be fully released until all reclamation requirements of these Rules and <br />the Act are fully met..." The same rule goes on to state, "No acreage shall be released from the permit <br />area until all surface coal mining and reclamation operations on that acreage have been completed in <br />accordance with the approved reclamation plan." <br />The Yoast Mine reclamation plan called for regrading the road out slope to a 5(h):1(v) slopes. SCC <br />regraded, topsoiled, and seeded the out slope in 2007 in accordance with the approved plan. In 2012, <br />Routt County purchased 1.97 acres of the right -of -way, and constructed a traffic roundabout on this <br />property in 2013. <br />6. PROTECTION OF HYDROLOGIC BALANCE. <br />The approved post- mining land use of commercial /industrial requires that the site be stabilized adequate <br />to control erosion. As such, no sedimentation demonstrations were conducted, nor were they required. <br />III. OBSERVATIONS AND FINDINGS <br />PHASE I <br />The area associated with the Dragline Deadhead Route was first disturbed by the operator in 1996 when <br />SCC walked a dragline from the Seneca II mining operation to the Yoast mining operation. SCC <br />reclaimed this area in accordance with the approved permit in 2007. In 2012, Routt County Road and <br />C1994 -082 Yoast Mine SL5 5 March 5, 2014 <br />