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May 12, 1999 Memorandum TO: Attendees of Meetings and Hearings regarding Mining Reclamation Permit Matters FROM: Mined Land Reclamation Board RE: Party Status in Matters Before the Mined Land Reclamation Board The purpose of this memorandum is to inform people who are interested in the Board hearing process of the statutory and regulatory definitions and provisions that will apply to them should they decide to participate as parties in an agency hearing. I. How to become a party to a matter before the Mined Land Reclamation Board. The State Administrative Procedures Act, C.R.S. §§ 24-4-101 to 108 ("APA") defines a party to include "any person or agency named or admitted as a party, or properly seeking and entitled as of right to be admitted as a party, in any court or agency proceeding subject to the provisions of this article." C.R.S. § 24-4-102(11). A party to a matter that will be settled in an agency hearing is "[a] person who may be affected or aggrieved by agency action" who files a written request with the agency to become a party, such request "setting forth a brief and plain statement of the facts which entitle him to be admitted and the matters which he claims should be decided." C.R.S. § 24-4-105(2)(c). See also Rules 1.4.6(2) and 2.7.1(1)(b) of the Hard Rock Rules or Construction Materials Rules. People become parties to matters before the Mined Land Reclamation Boazd ("MLRB" or "Board") by submitting written statements of objection during the public comment period, at an Informal Conference, or within the five day period following the Informal Conference, as provided in Rule 1.4.6 of the Hard Rock Rules or Construction Materials Rules. Furthermore, it is the practice of the Division of Minerals and Geology ("DMG") to consider anyone who attended the Informal Conference, and who submits a written objection within the jurisdiction of the Board either at the Informal Conference or within five days following the Informal Conference, a party pursuant to Rule 1.4.8(b) of the ' "Aggrieved" is defined in the APA at C.R.S. § 24-4-102(3.5) to mean "having suffered actual loss or injury or being exposed to potential loss or injury to legitimate interests including, but not limited to, business, economic, aesthetic, governmental, recreational, or conservational interests." The statutory definition applies only to rulemaking, but the definition has been extended to agency adjudicatory proceedings by the Colorado Supreme Court. National Wildlife Federation v. Cotter Com., 665 P.2d 598, 603 (Colo. 1983).