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hearing. As is pertinent here, the Petitioner will suffer actual loss or injury to its business operations, or will be exposed to potential loss or injury to those operations, which interests constitute legitimate business and economic interests. In particular, the Petitioner desires to point out to the Mined Land Reclamation Board (the "Board"} that the traffic from the mining operation described in the Application will increase the heavy truck traffic on Colorado Highway 119 and U.S. Highway 6. These highways constitute the primary routes from the Denver Metropoiitan Area to Black Hawk and the Petitioner's business. The US 6 portion already has 600 gravel trucks per day hauling from a neighboring quarry. The quantities contemplated in this permit application would indicate a similar number- or doubling the truck traffic. Our studies and those by the Colorado Department of Transportation (COOT) show both roads are already well over design capacity much of the time. This additional heavy truck traffic will negatively impact Petitioner's customers and employees. Traffic congestion on Highway 119 and U.S. 6 is a serious issue and the economic impacts of congestion of these primary routes into and out of Black Hawk have been quantified and discussed in severai reports produced by the COOT, the Black Hawk Business Improvement District, the Silver Dollar Metropolitan District, and the City of Black Hawk. Additional traffic has been shown to slow business traffic through Clear Creek Canyon and North Clear Creek Canyon, and to wntribute to increased accidents and a negative overall perception of safety on these roads. Based upon these reports, Petitioner's reasonable business judgment is that the proposed mining operations described in the application will negatively and seriously affect Petitioner's budget and impav Petitioner's reasonable investment-backed expectations. This economic loss to the Petitioner also represents an economic loss to the State of Colorado, due to the State's loss due to the decline in revenue from lost gaming taxes. These are not speculative damages, but instead are based on the prior traffic studies experienced-based projections of Petitioner's management. In fact, the traffic loads on these roads specifically has caused COOT to embark upon a five-year environmental impact study (Gaming Area Access Environmental Impact Study) the results of which are pending. The impacts of this proposed-quarry were not contemplated in the study. Pursuant to CMRR 1.4.9, following receipt of this petition for hearing, the Office is required to: (1) set a date to consider the application (2) schedule the application for a Format Hearing before the Board (3) provide all parties at least thirty (30) days written notice of the Formal Hearing date (4) issue a recommendation to the Board for approval, approval with conditions, or denial ofthe application. Pursuant to CMRR 2.7.1, the Board may, in its discretion, schedule aPre-Hearing Conference prior to the Formal Hearing. CMRR 2.7.1(1)(a) states, in relevant part, that the Pre-