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ENFORCE24355
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Entry Properties
Last modified
8/24/2016 7:33:11 PM
Creation date
11/21/2007 10:41:38 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
DRMS Permit Index
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
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nor was CCC directed by the Division in the permit to conduct this activity. <br />• Paragraph C. 9. of the Grants, Conditions, and Agreements section of the January 10, 2003 <br />DMG permit states, "The permittee shall comply with the terms and conditions of this permit, <br />all applicable performance standards of the Act, and the requirements of these Rules". The <br />inadvertent mining conducted by CCC is not in compliance with the terms and conditions of <br />the permit, applicable standards of the Act, and applicable requirements of the Rules. <br />• Paragraph C. 13. of the Grants, Conditions, and Agreements section of the January 10, 2003 <br />DMG permit states, "No coal mining operations shall be conducted on Federal surface or coal <br />until the Secretary of the Interior has approved the mining plan." Discussions with BLM and <br />OSM indicate that the Secretary of the Interior has not approved of a mining plan allowing <br />removal of the coal from the unleased area where the inadvertent mining occurred. <br />Thus we determined that CCC's blasting of 2525 tons of unleased federal coal at the Colowyo Mine <br />earlier this month, and the removal of 2366 tons of this 2525 tons, occurred in violation of the Act, <br />Rules, CCC's permit application package, and CCC's DMG-issued permit. Given the effort CCC <br />made to communicate its plans for the West Pit ramp to BLM, and CCC's efforts to maintain-a berm <br />along its lease boundary to denote the approved limit of coal extraction (as described in CCC's letter <br />of June 9, 2004 to BLM), we further determined that this violation was unintentional. <br />We subsequently investigated whether this violation met State statutory and regulatory criteria for the <br />issuance of a Cessation Order. These criteria essentially require us to determine whether a violation <br />created an imminent danger to the health or safety of the public, or caused or created the expectation <br />of causing significant environmental harm to land, air, or water resources. <br />The Regulations essentially define "imminent danger to the health or safety of the public" as that <br />which could be reasonably expected to cause substantial physical harm to persons outside the permit <br />area, and essentially define "significant environmental harm" as an adverse, appreciable, and "not <br />immediately reparable" impact. The Regulations additionally state that conducting surface coal <br />mining operations without a valid permit constitutes a practice that can reasonably be expected to <br />cause significant imminent environmental harm. <br />We determined that the area within which the inadvertent mining occurred was within permitted <br />areas approved for topsoil stripping and overburden blasting, that this area was approximately 1000 <br />feet within CCC's western permit boundary, that this area was within an approved sediment control <br />system, and that the extent of area within which the inadvertent mining occurred was not appreciable. <br />We additionally determined that CCC was in possession of a valid DMG-issued permit at the time the <br />inadvertent mining occurred (albeit not a permit allowing mining of unleased federal coal). We <br />consequently determined that CCC's inadvertent mining of unleased federal coal did not meet state <br />statutory and regulatory criteria for the issuance of a Cessation Order. <br />The Act and the Regulations state that once we determine a violation of State laws, regulations, or a <br />permit has occurred, but subsequently determine that the violation does not meet the criteria for the <br />issuance of a Cessation Order, we must then issue a Notice of Violation for that violation. We <br />
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