ENFORCE24355

• Permit No: C1981019
• IBM Index Class Name: Enforcement
• Doc Date: 6/24/2004
• Doc Name: DMG Decisions Regarding Enforcement Action
• From: DMG
• To: Colowyo Coal Company L.P.
• Violation No.: CV2004001
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

STATE OF COLORADO
DIVISION OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGY
Department of Natural Resources
1373 Sherman St., Room 275
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
June 24, 2004
Mr. Bob Young
Colowyo Coal Company L.P.
5731 State Highway ]3
Meeker, Colorado 81641
Re: DMG Decisions Regarding Enforcement Action
Colowyo Coal Company L.P., The Colowyo Mine
DMG Permit No. C-81-019
Dear Mr. Young:
COLORADO
DIVISION OF
M1N ORALS
GEOLOGY
RECLAMATION•MINING
SAFETY•SCIENCE
Bill Owens
Governor
Russell George
Executive Director
Ronald W. Cattany
Division Dlrector
Natural Resource Trustee
Thank you for your letter of June 18, 2004 related to the inadvertent mining of unleased federal coal
at the Colowyo Coal Mine earlier this month. We have reviewed this letter, as well as other recent
verbal and written communications from Colowyo Coal Company (CCC). We have additionally
reviewed information from the Little Snake Field Office of the US Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) and from the Western Regional Coordinating Center of the US Office of Surface Mining
(OSM) regarding this matter. We have also conducted a review of our State Laws, Regulations, and
of the pertinent sections of CCC's permit application package and DMG-issued permit.
Afrer careful consideration of this information, the Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) has
determined that the inadvertent mining of unleased federal coal at the Colowyo mine was an
unintentional violation of the Act, Rules, CCC's permit application, and CCC's DMG-issued permit.
We have additionally determined that this violation does not warrant the issuance of a Cessation
Order, and have thus issued Notice of Violation CV-2004-001 (via a separate mailing).
We wish to inform CCC that we did not come by these decisions lightly. We are sensitive to CCC's
efforts to ensure compliance with the State mining and reclamation laws and regulations, to the fact
that this violation was self-reported, and to the fact that the amount of coal inadvertently removed
was relatively small. We are also awaze of the efforts CCC had taken at the location of this violation
so as attempt to prevent this violation from happening. We therefore would like to provide CCC the
following information as to how we arrived at our decisions.
The Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act (the Act) and the Regulations of the Colorado
Mined Land Reclamation Board for Coal Mining (the Regulations, or the Rules) state essentially that
upon our determination that a violation of the Act, Rules, or a permit exists at a surface coal mining
operation, we must consequently determine whether that violation requires the issuance of a
Cessation Order or a Notice of Violation. Our first task, therefore, was to determine whether the
Office of Office of Colorado
Mined Land Reclamation Active and Inactive Mines Geological Survey