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WildEarthGuardians <br />Page 2 <br />July 6, 2018 <br />determines if the information adequately addresses the requirements of the Act and Rules. This, <br />in essence, is the difference between an application being complete and an application being <br />adequate or inadequate. <br />A review by the Division has determined that the private land road associated with the original <br />WEG request for the site visit falls within lands owned by Mountain Coal Company. As such, <br />the Division believes that the West Elk Mine does have right to enter the area associated with the <br />private land road (delineated as "Old Road" on the proposed PR -15 Map). Importantly, and as <br />we discussed during the site visit on June 21-22, the proposed road network and layout of the <br />proposed MVBs delineated on the proposed MVB's — PR -15 Map are currently being revised to <br />reflect a more adequate mine plan and layout. <br />With regard to Rule 2.03.6(1), the currently approved permit, C-1980-007, contains a description <br />of the documents upon which the applicant bases his or her legal right to enter. In addition, the <br />proposed PR -15 application bases the right to enter the proposed area on the leases associated <br />with USFS and BLM surface and coal respectfully. The small spur road associated with <br />proposed MVB SST1-7, the spur road and MVB's SST2-9, SST2-8, SST2-7, and the spur road <br />and SST3-8 and SST3-7 are on Mountain Coal Company surface lands, as such, West Elk <br />maintains the right to enter. <br />As noted in the Division's June 19, 2018 adequacy review, the Division does identify the <br />application as inadequate at this time. However, this statement does not imply the entire PR -15 <br />application is inadequate, merely portions of the application have been deemed inadequate, <br />requiring additional information be provided to achieve adequacy. However, to be clear, the <br />entire PR -15 application is complete for the purposes of filing based on the Division's review. <br />The Division will continue to process the PR -15 application as a complete application for the <br />purposes of filing. The Division's preliminary adequacy review has been sent to the applicant <br />and Mountain Coal Company has yet to respond. Once a response is submitted, the Division will <br />review those responses for adequacy. This correspondence will continue until all inadequate <br />items have been addressed. The Division's adequacy review process is iterative by design. <br />During the course of an adequacy review process plans submitted in an original application are <br />modified or revised to address technical concerns raised by the Division. Once all responses have <br />adequately addressed the Act and Rules, the Division will issue a Proposed Decision. <br />By letter dated June 1, 2018 WEG submitted a request for informal conference. During our <br />conversations on the site visit you indicated a willingness to set this informal conference the last <br />week of July/first week of August. The Division would like to schedule the conference for <br />Wednesday, August 1, 2018. Please let me know if it is the intention of WEG to move forward <br />