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III. COMMENTS -COMPLIANCE <br />Below aze comments on the inspection. The comments include discussion of observations made during the <br />inspection. Comments also describe any enforcement actions taken during the inspection and the facts or <br />evidence supporting the enforcement action. <br />In a letter dated August 6, 2007, the Division requested an itemized list of the structures, and the amount of <br />reclamation bond for each structure, for which BRL is requesting bond release. Such a list was provided to the <br />Division in an a-mail dated August 6, 2007. The submittal was called complete on August 9, 2007. <br />The field inspection was scheduled for September 5, 2007. Notification letters for the field inspection were sent <br />on August 14, 2007. Because the Bowie No. 1 Mine is a federal mine, the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) was <br />contacted concerning the bond release field inspection. OSM declined to attend the field inspection. BRL was <br />the only landowner of the land where structural demolition had taken place so they were the only landowner <br />informed of the field inspection. <br />As part of the adequacy review of SL-3, the Division requested that BRL provide a notarized statement that <br />certified that all of the reclamation activities were done in compliance with the rules and the approved <br />reclamation plan. This notarized statement was sent to the Division in a letter dated August 23, 2007 and <br />received at the Division on August 27, 2007. <br />The partial phase one bond release field inspection took place on September 5, 2007 at the unit train loadout. <br />Representing BRL was Basil Bear and Jim Stover, BRL's consultant. Representing the Division were Sandy <br />Brown and Joe Dudash. After the field inspection, BRL submitted a letter dated September 5, 2007 and received <br />at the Division on September 7, 2007 in which BRL requested bond release for some of the spur line track that <br />had been removed from the site. <br />Unit Train Loadout History <br />The unit train loadout, located along State Highway 133 just east of Paonia, was built to receive coal by haul <br />trucks and load and ship coal by railcar from the Orchard Valley Mine. The Orchard Valley Mine and train <br />loadout, owned by Colorado Westmoreland, Inc. (CWI), began operations in 1975 before passage of the Surface <br />Coal Mining and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). [n 1986, the Orchard Valley West Mine portals were built as a <br />temporary substitute for the original mine portals which had experienced a mine fire. The unit train loadout <br />continued to serve the West Mine. <br />[n 1989, the permit was transferred from CWI to Cyprus Orchard Valley Coal Corporation (COVCC). The West <br />Mine operated until 1993 when coal could once again be extracted from the original mine and shipped out <br />through the unit train loadout. The permit was transferred in 1994, this time from COVCC to Bowie Resources <br />Limited, which later became Bowie Resources LLC. The mine was renamed the Bowie No. 1 Mine. Mining <br />eventually ceased at the Bowie No. 1 Mine in December 1997. <br />However, the Bowie No. l Mine train loadout continued operations by shipping out coal that had been mined at <br />the Bowie No. 2 Mine. The Bowie No. 2 Mine, which had been constructed in 1997, utilized the Bowie No. 1 <br />Mine unit train loadout until a new unit train loadout was constructed for the Bowie No. 2 Mine in 2002. Small <br />shipments of speciality coal from Bowie No. 2 went through the Bowie No. I Mine unit train loadout for a while <br />but, eventually, the Bowie No. 1 Mine unit train loadout was idled. <br />