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II. CRITERIA AND SCHEDULE FOR BOND RELEASE <br />PHASE I <br />Rule 3.03.1(2)(a) states, "Up to sixty percent of the applicable bond amount shall be released when the <br />permittee successfully completes backfilling, regrading, and drainage control in accordance with the <br />approved reclamation plan." The remaining parcel affiliated with the Golden Eagle Mine permit, the NW - <br />1 vent/fan site, was given Phase I bond release in August 2005. <br />PHASE II <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 post -mining land use and which meets the <br />approved success standard for cover... based on statistically valid data collected during a single year of the <br />liability period". In regard to Phase II bond release, Rule 3.03.2(3)(b) also states, " No more than sixty <br />(60) percent of the bond shall be released so long as the lands to which the release would be applicable are <br />contributing suspended solids to streamflow or runoff outside the permit area in excess of pre -mining <br />levels as determined by baseline data or in excess of levels determined on adjacent non -mined areas." <br />The approved reclamation plan for the NW -1 vent/fan site includes topsoil replacement, seeding, and <br />vegetative cover success standards. These standards are not being evaluated with this SL -07 bond <br />release process since the site remains permitted with the Division. The standards will need to be <br />evaluated when NECC requests Phase II bond release of the site as part of a New Elk Mine bond <br />release application in the future. (Currently such an application has not been filed by NECC.). In <br />addition to an evaluation of vegetative cover success standards, the Division will assess the merits of this <br />future application in terms of support of post -mining land uses and a suspended solids demonstration. <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 the <br />Act are fully met...". The same rule goes on to state, " No acreage shall be released from the permit area <br />until all surface coal mining and reclamation operations on that acreage have been completed in <br />accordance with the approved reclamation plan." <br />The approved reclamation plan for the NW -1 vent/fan site includes backfilling and grading to approved <br />contours, drainage control and reestablishment, topsoil replacement, re -vegetation success, support of <br />post -mining land uses, and protection of the hydrologic balance. These factors are not being evaluated <br />with this SL -07 bond release process since the site remains permitted with the Division. The <br />Golden Eagle Mine Partial Phase II and III Bond Release (SL -07) <br />Permit Number C-1981-013 Page 4 of 6 <br />