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-z- NOTICE OF VIOLATION C-84-014 Peabody Coal Company contested the facts of the violation as written. The company commented that the road berm was breached to construct a "water bar" - type structure to replace a culvert which had failed several times. The culvert lacked sufficient road cover to support the scrapers and haul trucks using the road. The company believes the issuance of an NOV was inappropriate, because such problems are normal mining occurrence. The company presented a letter of approval from the Division for a technical revision at the mine site, which specifically approved breaching of berms in "reclaimed areas". However, this affected area is an "undisturbed" area. In my opinion, the facts of the violation were appropriate as written in notice of Violation C-84-074. Staff proposed civil penalty as follows: History Seriousness Fault TbTiTC $ 0 500.00 500.00 ,0 .0 The operator presented comments in opposition to the proposed penalty assessments. The company believes that the extent of damage was slight, with which I concur, based on photographic slides presented. Therefore, I am lowering the seriousness component assessment to $400.00. Further, the operator believes the fault was minimal, because the violation related to a failure in an approved plan. Although the operator should have contacted the Division immediately upon realizing the failure of the plan, I do agree with this indication an am lowering the fault component to $250.00. The operator completed the abatement in conformance with a modified abatement dateline. Ground conditions were extremely inclement and required an extraordinary effort to accomplish compliance. Therefore, I am applying the good faith adjustment of $250.00 to NOV C-84-074. The finalized penalty is as follows: History $ 0 Seriousness 400.00 Fault 250.00 Good Faith Ad ustment - 250.00 TOTAL PENALT 400.00 JAP/baw Doc. No. 2837