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survey of the areas to be affected by development of the Sanborn Creek portals, haul road and <br /> conveyor facilities. These surveys indicated that approximately 8,850 cubic yards of soil could <br /> be salvaged from these areas and that vegetation in the portal area and along the conveyor/haul <br /> road corridor was substantially the same as the surrounding vegetative types. Soil salvaged from <br /> these areas will be used for reclamation activities. However, soil on the Sanborn Creek <br /> disturbance will not necessarily be replaced to the same original thickness, as discussed in the <br /> Topsoil section below. <br /> U.S. Steel conducted a vegetation survey of unaffected land adjacent to the surface disturbed <br /> areas for the purpose of developing a reclamation plan for the surface disturbed area. A native <br /> seed mix has been approved which is representative of the adjacent unaffected lands. The <br /> surface will be returned to rangeland and wildlife habitat which is the present status of adjacent <br /> lands and the pre mining land use of the disturbed area. <br /> In 2005, OMLLC commissioned two new Block Clearances for the Elk Creek and Sanborn <br /> Creek Mines: A Class III Cultural Resource Inventory and a Biological Project(wildlife and <br /> habitat survey for Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Species and Management Indicator <br /> Species). These studies may be found in Exhibit 2.04-E7 (Vol. 8) of the PAP. <br /> Detailed Review of the Reclamation Plan <br /> (This addition to the Findings was first included with MT-8 and has been updated with RN-8. It <br /> is intended to clarify the outstanding reclamation work and permitting that remains to be done). <br /> Specific details of the reclamation plan are given in section 2.05.4 of the PAP, under headings <br /> related to the area in question. This description begins on Page 2.05-51 and ends on Page 2.05- <br /> 67. Since OMLLC has completed a great deal of reclamation work on the site and is now in the <br /> process of going through a series of bond release applications, this section of the PAP is <br /> reviewed in detail in items (a)through(1)below, using the headings and sequence that are given <br /> in the PAP, with the aim of providing a review of the current reclamation status of the site, a <br /> basis for a revised Reclamation Cost Estimate (RCE) and guidance for future bond release <br /> applications. <br /> The Division interprets the Act and the Rules to mean that a task related to the reclamation of a <br /> structure or facility that has actually been constructed may be removed from the RCE only when <br /> the parcel of land to which the task pertains goes through a formal process of bond release. In <br /> practice this means that: <br /> i. Structures or facilities that have been bonded for will continue to be bonded for, even <br /> when they have been removed, until the parcel of land that they were situated on has been <br /> reclaimed and achieved Phase I bond release; <br /> ii. Structures or facilities (including graded areas)that have been approved as permanent on <br /> the basis of an alternative post-mining land use will continue to be bonded for until it can <br /> be demonstrated that they actively support that alternative post-mining land use, and the <br /> parcel of land has achieved Phase I, II and III bond release; <br /> iii. Where an alternative post-mining land use has been approved in principle, but not yet put <br /> 11 <br />