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III. COMMENTS-COMPLIANCE Below are comments on the inspection. The comments include discussion of observations made during the inspection. Comments in Section IV describe any enforcement actions taken during the inspection and the facts or evidence supporting the enforcement action. The single purpose of this inspection was to preview a proposed 5,750-foot-long access road alignment up Sylvester Gulch. This road segment would be a connection between two existing roads. The purpose of the road is to provide access to drill pads to the south of the current area of mining, The road starts in the vicinity of the boundary of the SE '/a SE '/4 Section 21 and SW '/a SW '/a Section 22 and extents to the south line of SE '/4 NE '/a Section 27, T13S R90W (see the Somerset USGS 7.5-minute topographic map quadrangle). This route would be an alternate to the current 20- mile (estimate) circuitous route of traveling from the mine site, west on Colorado Highway 133 to Paonia, thence up the Minnesota Creek road, through residential, private properly, and US Forest Service lands. The proposed alignment reviewed is described in a geotechnical report titled Conceptual Evaluation of Sylvester Gulch Roadway Construction Feasibility prepared for Mountain Coal Company, November 28 2001, by Buckhorn Geotech. The proposed ground trace had not been flagged; therefore precise slopes, grades, and detail features of the route were not observed. This road would be on US Forest Service property (Somerset quadrangle). The proposed road alignment is nearly superimposed upon an existing trail (old over- grown dozer trail, ATV and snowmobile use) for a third of the project. At the time of this inspection, the proposed alignment was covered by snow, approximately two feet in the valley bottom and north facing slopes, approximately a foot on the south-facing slopes. Ample examples of land slides, slope failures, mass movement, and soil creep were noted during the inspection, and attest to a history of instability of some of the slopes to be traversed. In general north-facing slopes appeared to be less stable than south- facing slopes. Snow cover inhibited notation of wet areas or seeps. In general, south- facing slopes were covered with mature oak (Gambols) brush, the valley bottom with mature but thin or disconnected areas of aspen, and the north slopes with aspen and pine trees. The proposed alignment is not located on ridges, but is located on the more stable available slopes close to the bottom of the ravine/valley of Sylvester Gulch (Rule 4.03.2(2)). There are two crossing of the Sylvester Gulch drainage, but no part of the Sylvester Gulch channel is proposed as part of the access road (Rule 4.03.2(2)(b)). Sylvester Gulch has classified as an ephemeral stream on page 2.04-55 of the C-80- 007 Permit Application Package and is indicated as an intermittent stream on the Somerset quadrangle. No fatal flaw with the proposed alignment was noted, but compliance with the Rules will be a challenge. The overall grade of the proposed road approaches 10%, and C-80-007, Page _3_ of _5_ Pages, (date) _11 December 2001 (initials) _BGW