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INTRODUCTION The Hawk's Nest Mine is a revoked underground coal mining site located 3 miles east of Somerset, Colorado, along the North Fork of the Gunnison River. Approximately 29 acres were disturbed of a total permit area of 2050 acres, in sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, and 12 of T13S, R90W with an offsite refuse facility. The active site consisted of an east mine, a west mine office, shop and facilities, the loadout silos and the coal stockpile area and two waste disposal azeas -one adjacent to the Delta County landfill and a small pre- law area along the North Fork of the Gunnison River. The mine was located on privately-owned surface with federal coal. The entire Hawk's Nest mine area lies within the permit area of the Sanborn Creek/Elk Creek Mines of Oxbow Mining, LLC. The Hawk's Nest Mine was owned and operated by Western Slope Carbon, Inc., under Extraction and Development Permit No. 78-155 issued by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board (MLRB). A permanent program permit was issued on June 7, 1983 as C-81-016. Western Slope Cazbon, Inc., failed to comply with regulatory requirements for an extended period of time, resulting in the revocation of their permit and forfeiture of the reclamation bond of $624,803.05. The Board directed the Office of Mined Land Reclamation, Coal Regulatory Section, [o secure reclamation of the site using funds obtained from the forfeited performance bond on December 14, 1988. The Division of Minerals and Geology, using private contractors and acting under the authority of the Board, began reclaiming the site in 1990. The initial reclamation was the West Mine reclamation, performed by Perrin Construction. Work included demolition and removal of structural and electrical facilities at the West Mine, the filling of six portal openings, the regrading and ripping of disturbed areas and reconstruction of drainage control. This project was completed in July 1990. This was followed by the West Mine revegetation project, completed in November 1990 by Flock Restoration and Seeding, Inc. The East Mine reclamation project was completed in October, 1991, by Mountain Region Corporation. The project involved removal of substation facilities, the switch and gear building, the crusher facility, the steel fuel tank and miscellaneous steel tanks, the pump house building, the river pumping facility, the wazehouse building, storage shed and miscellaneous material and debris. The East Mine revegetation was done by Kessler Reclamation, completed in November 1991. The coal silos were demolished and disposed in June of 1994 by Miners, Inc. Backfilling and drainage control reconstruction was completed by Wagner Construction in November 1994, consisting of construction of five ditches, removal of two sediment ponds, grading and topsoil spreading and sealing of three methane degas wells.