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drill pads and their associated light -use roads and the Monument Dam borrow area. The Division <br />issued its proposed decision to approve Partial Phase I Bond Release SL -07 on 13 April 2015 and <br />released $97,871.00. <br />The Division received MCC's SL -06 application for a Partial Phase I Bond Release on 3 December <br />2013. The application was deemed incomplete on 13 December 2013 and deemed complete on 7 <br />March 2014, after receiving a copy of the affidavit of publication of West Elk's SL -06 legal notice. <br />The legal notice was published four times in the Delta County Independent (on 25 December 2013 <br />and 1, 8 and 15 January 2014). The Division conducted a bond release inspection on 24 June 2014. <br />The site inspection was conducted in accordance with Rule 3.03.2(2), in response to the operator's <br />filing of the complete Partial Phase III Bond Release application SL -06. Lands included in the bond <br />release area were federally owned. The coal mined in the bond release area was also federally <br />owned. Persons present during the bond release inspection included: Jim Stark representing the <br />Division, Jessica Loveland representing MCC, Howard Strand representing the Office of Surface <br />Mining (OSM), Dan Gray representing the US Forest Service (USFS) and Desty Dyer, <br />Representing the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Kathy Welt and Weston Norris, both <br />representing Mountain Coal, were present for the office portion of the inspection. Letters notifying <br />surface owners and adjacent landowners of the inspection were also mailed but no private <br />landowners attended the inspection. <br />II. CRITERIA AND SCHEDULE FOR BOND RELEASE <br />PHASE I <br />The Division evaluated West Elk's application for a partial Phase III Bond Release on 24.2 acres, <br />requested in the SL -06 application. Under Colorado's Permanent Program, the process of releasing <br />the reclamation bond for a mine site is explained in Rule 3.03 and further described in the <br />Division's 1995 Guideline Regarding Selected Coal Mining Bond Release Issues. The bond release <br />process involves three phases. At Phase III, Rule 3.03.1(2) (c) states, " The remaining portion of the <br />bond amount shall be released when the permittee has successfully completed all surface coal <br />mining reclamation operations in accordance with this approved reclamation plan, and the final <br />inspection and procedures of 3.03.2 have been satisfied. This shall not be before the expiration of <br />the period specified for revegetation responsibility in 3.02.3." Rule 3.03.1(4) states, " No bond shall <br />be fully released until all reclamation requirements of these Rules and the Act are fully met..." The <br />same rule goes on to state, " No acreage shall be released from the permit area until all surface coal <br />mining and reclamation operations on that acreage have been completed in accordance with the <br />approved reclamation plan." A Phase III bond release can occur: <br />1. When the minimum period of liability of 10 years is met. [Section 3.02.3(2)(b)]; <br />2. When the permittee has successfully completed all surface coal mining <br />reclamation operations in accordance with the approved reclamation plan <br />West Elk Mine 4 12 June 2015 <br />Partial Phase III Bond Release SL -06 Findings <br />