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Order was necessitated by the potential for the prohibited activities to "cause[ ] or <br />... reasonably be expected to cause significant imminent environmental harm to <br />land, air, or water resources." <br />4. The Cessation Order also required Operator to provide the Division <br />with detailed information regarding its assertion that it maintained legal right of <br />entry to the Sunset Roadless area and how that was not in direct conflict with the <br />federal district court's vacatur of the North Fork Exception to the Colorado Roadless <br />Rule. <br />5. Operator responded to the Cessation Order through a letter dated duly <br />2, 2020, arguing that the Cessation Order exceeded the Division's authority under <br />state and federal law as well as Colorado's Cooperative Agreement with -the federal <br />Office of Surface Mining (OSM ). Operator requested that the Division terminate the <br />Cessation Order and, in the alternative, requested a hearing before the Board at its <br />next scheduled meeting. <br />6. At the Board's July 23, 2016 hearing, the Division presented testimony <br />regarding the Cessation Order and the history of site and federal litigation <br />involving the North Fork Exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule. The North Fork <br />Exception had allowed surface activities on federal land that would otherwise be <br />subject to prohibitions on roadbuilding. Operator has a lease for coal mining on <br />federal lands in the Sunset Roadless area, which was covered by the North Fork <br />Exception. With the vacatur of the North Fork Exception, the Division concluded <br />that Operator had lost its legal right of entry to build roads and pads in the Sunset <br />Roadless area. <br />7. At the hearing, the Division explained that if Operator continued <br />construction of roads in an area that was required by federal law to remain <br />roadless, those actions would result in significant harm to the environment. The <br />Division described discussions with the Operator, the federal Bureau of Land <br />Management CBLM"), and the U.S. Forest Service ("USFS"). During those <br />conversations, the Operator indicated that it would continue building roads and <br />well pads, and that the BLM and USFS did not take a definitive position. <br />8. The Division also discussed its authority to issue the Cessation Order, <br />including that Colorado had gained primacy for regulating coal mining under <br />federal law in 1980. Under Colorado's cooperative agreement with OSM, the <br />Division has primacy for enforcement and issuing orders of cessation. The Division <br />explained that it was not adjudicating the validity of Operator's lease with the <br />federal government or Operator's rights under the lease, an issue where the federal <br />government retains primacy. Rather, the Division is questioning the Operator's <br />legal right of entry in the roadless areas now that the North Fork Exception has <br />Mountain Coal Company, LLC. <br />West Elk Mine, CO-2020-001, Permit No. C-198-007 2 <br />