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compensate for damage caused by subsidence that constitutes a <br />violation. Since the State court Judge determined the amount of <br />compensation due, based upon a diminution of value, and BRI paid <br />that compensation as directed by the court, no violation exists.Z <br />that the operator did adopt.measures (specifically limiting <br />extraction) that were expected to preclude subsidence in the area <br />of the Tatum home. See administrative record at volume III, tab <br />26. While there is a technical dispute among the parties as to <br />whether those measures did, in fact, prevent subsidence from <br />causing damage, the record is clear that measures were adopted <br />that were expected to prevent subsidence. Therefore, there was <br />no violation of Colorado rule 4.20.1 <br />Z P.s noted by the Board, Appellants argued that damage to <br />their home constitutes a violation of Section 720(a) of SMCRA (30 <br />U.S.C. § 1309a(a)) and 30 C.F.R. § 817.121(c)(2). Those <br />requirements, however, are not applicable in this case. The <br />requirements of Section 720 of SMCRA to repair or compensate <br />apply only to subsidence-related damage to occupied residential <br />dwellings caused by underground mining activity conducted after <br />October 24, 1992. See 30 U.S.C. § 1309a at subsection (a). (A <br />copy of this section of the U.S. Code is attached to this <br />pleading for the convenience of the Board.) As noted by the <br />Board, the mining in the vicinity of the Appellants' home ceased <br />in 1988. Therefore, any subsidence damage to the Tatum home does <br />not fall within the requirements of Section 720 of SMCRA or its <br />implementing regulations. <br />The relevant Federal regulation for the Tatum home is <br />current 30 C.F.R. § 817.121(c}(3). Prior to March 31, 1995, this <br />provision was codified at 30 C.F.R. § 817.121(c)(2). A copy of <br />this provision, as previously codified in the July 1, 1988, Code <br />of Federal Regulations, is attached to this pleading for the <br />convenience of the Board. This provision of the Federal <br />regulations requires coal mine operators, to the extent reouired <br />under applicable provisions of State law, to repair or compensate <br />the owner of the structure for the full amount of the diminution <br />in value resulting from subsidence. The State law limitation on <br />subsidence damage liability was promulgated in 1987 (52 Fed. Reg. <br />4868, February 17, 1987) and was upheld by the U.S. Court of <br />Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1991. See <br />National Wildlife Federation v. Luian, 928 F.2d 453 (March 22, <br />1991). (It was this court decision that lead to the passage of <br />section 720 of SMCRA in 1992). <br />In her concurring opinion in the above case, Judge Wald <br />stated that a person who has been injured because of a coal mine <br />4 <br />