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EB -01 <br />a OFFICE of ARCHAEOLOGY and HISTORIC PRESERVATION <br />RECEIVED <br />Robin :\. Reilley -_ <br />1?mvironmcntal Protection Specialist JUL 18 2017 <br />Dn-ision of Reclamauon, Mining and Safety <br />1313 Sherman St., Room 215 Division of Reclamation, <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 Mining & Safety <br />Re: Trapper N,Iine �Termit No. C-1981-010), Permit Renewal Applicadon No. 8 (RN -8) (HC #67393) <br />Dear N1s. Reilley: <br />Our office appreciates the time you and Mr. Daniel Hernandez took to meet on June 12, 2017 to discuss <br />Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety (DRMS) Coal Program policies and practices in general, and Permit <br />Renewal Application No. 8 for the Trapper Mine specifically. At that meeting, you asked that our office review <br />the cultural resource survey reports for inventory conducted for the Trapper Mine expanded permit area. We <br />received additional information from DIUlS via e-mail and a phone conversation between June 12 and June 27, <br />2017. <br />'lie five reports provided by DIMS during the June 12, 2017 meeting document cultural resource surveys and <br />subsequent site evaluation testing conducted between 2013 and 2016, covering the entire 795.71 -acre expanded <br />permit area and an additional 2568 acres of land east of the expanded permit area. Individual site forms for <br />resources documented during these efforts were not provided by DRINIS. flowever, as this work also involved <br />Bureau of land Management (I3I,NI) permitting, our office previously received the above -referenced reports and <br />the associated site forms as part of consultation packages provided by BI.M between 2014 and 2016. <br />\' hile we find the level of effort undertaken to indentify historic properties within the expanded permit area <br />satisfactory, we are unable to comment further in regards to determinations of eligibility or assessment of <br />adverse effects. We wish to address several issues pertaining to the Section 106 consultation process that is <br />both specific to this permit revision application as well as broadly applicable to DRMS Coal Program <br />consultation with our office. <br />For undertakings with a Federal nexus, consultation must occur under the National Historic Preservation Act <br />(Section 106). It is the Federal agency's statutory obligation to do so. This obligation includes determining the <br />arca of potential effects (APE), identifying historic properties, making determinations of National Register of <br />I Iistoric Places eligibility, and applying the criteria of adverse effect (36 CFR 800.4 -- 5). The State I listoric <br />Preservation Office's role is to advise and assist the Federal agency in fulfilling this obligation. <br />The DRMS completeness letters we currently receive do not meet the documentation standards as required by <br />Section 106 (see 36 CFR 800.11). A description of the undertaking and its APt? including photographs, maps <br />and drawings are not included with your notifications. These regulations also require that the agency provide a <br />description of steps taken to identify historic properties within the APE with its discussion of effects upon such <br />properties. Copies or summaries of consulting party comments are also required. And while we do utilize <br />DRNIS' Laserfiche \'VebLink, to the extent practicable, to search for information relevant to our review, this is <br />often difficult and time-consuming, particularly for coal mines which often span 30 years or more. Further, <br />we've learned that some infonnation only gets uploaded to this website subsequent to the approval of <br />applications. <br />As an example, the letter we received for Trapper Mine's Permit Renewal Application No. 8, dated May 12, <br />2017, contained the following description: raGNOWNITSTUDI e. <br />1300 BROADWAY DENVER COLORADO 80203 TEL 303/866-3395 FAx 303/866-2711 www.coloradohistory-oahp.org <br />