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2016-10-27_REVISION - C1981041
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2016-10-27_REVISION - C1981041
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Entry Properties
Last modified
5/3/2017 12:00:39 PM
Creation date
10/27/2016 12:27:21 PM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
DRMS Permit Index
Permit No
C1981041
IBM Index Class Name
Revision
Doc Date
10/27/2016
From
James A. Beckwith Attorney & Councelor at Law
To
DRMS
Type & Sequence
TR69
Email Name
BFB
DIH
Media Type
D
Archive
No
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JAMES A. BECKWITH <br />LETTER TO BROCK BOWLES, CO DRMS / SNOWCAP COAL COMPANY RECLAMATION / PG. 2 <br />to civil suit to collect the damages and attorney fees.' On December 21, 2015, Snowcap made <br />Commitments which were incorporated into its Permit C1981041. Snowcap's Repair Plan <br />proposes to address only 2 acres of the 406+ acres of effected lands owned by Fontanari. <br />Snowcap has deliberately refused to investigate the other 404 acres of effected lands: in direct <br />violation of its Commitment of December 21, 2015. Surprisingly, Snowcap's consulting <br />advisors are in conflict with each other over the relationship between mine collapses and surface <br />subsidence. Fugro and Snowcap acknowledge that mine collapses cause surface subsidence and <br />sub -surface fissures and abysses. Huddleston -Berry, however, deny there is any such <br />relationship, and insist that only a bored air shaft causes the hydrologic communication between <br />surface irrigation and mine flooding. This conclusion by Huddleston -Berry is refuted by field <br />evidence acknowledged by Snowcap; by Fugro Consultants; and, by publications of DRMS. In <br />the ultimate analysis, Snowcap's Plan is inconclusive, unsupported by the physical evidence and <br />far too small in scope to address the subsidences already caused by room and pillar collapse and <br />which will be caused in the future. For these reasons, DRMS must reject the Snowcap Repair <br />Plan: holding Snowcap to the full extent of its statutory and common law liability to correct and <br />resolve the landowner's loss of ability to irrigate surface crops. <br />In its place, Fontanari requests DRMS to adopt the Fontanari Repair Plan. Over the next <br />10-20 years, under DRMS and Mesa County permits, Fontanari will be extracting valuable <br />basaltic materials to a depth of 50 feet throughout its land. Such excavation will eventually <br />uncover subsurface fissures: allowing DRMS and Fontanari to address their repair when <br />uncovered and discovered. Snowcap should be eliminated from these future repairs, as it is <br />obvious Snowcap is more a hindrance than a help in repairing the damages. In the interim, the <br />Fontanari Plan calls for repair and improvement of the Martin Crawford Ditch: damaged by <br />subsidence from Snowcap's mines. By matching soil conditions with appropriate crops <br />(vineyards; orchards; grasses) and efficient irrigation methods (drip or sprinkler), Fontanari can <br />then produce surface crops: thereby avoiding the loss of highly valuable water rights from Rapid <br />Creek. The Fontanari Plan also requires increased reclamation bonds in the sum of $1.6 Million <br />and payment, under statute, of the attorney fees incurred by Fontanari. <br />THE SNOWCAP HYDROLOGIC COMMUNICATION REPAIR PLAN <br />(A) Snowcap Willfully, Deliberately and Knowingly Refuses to Comply <br />With its December 21, 2015 Commitment and the Terms of Its Permit <br />On December 21, 2015, Snowcap, by written instrument, committed itself to <br />investigating and reporting on the existing or potential existence of hydrologic communication <br />between surface and collapsed mine caverns on all lands owned by Fontanari and Jason Carey.2 <br />Research has failed to reveal any modification of this Commitment by either Snowcap or DRMS. <br />It is as binding today as it was when agreed to by Snowcap. This Commitment is now a <br />fundamental part of Snowcap's Permit No. C1981461. As an element of the Permit, it falls <br />within the enforcement purview of C.R.S. §34-33-135(6) as well as 34-33-123. <br />' C.R.S. §§34-33-113,121 and 135 <br />2 Fontanari Response to Snowcap Investigative Report; 5.6.2016; Appendix B <br />
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