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SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT JUSTIFICATION NOV C-95-020 Notice of Violation C-95-020 was issued for "Failure to maintain adequate sediment control structures as designed." Steve Shuey issued the NOV to Oakridge Energy at the Carbon Junction Mine on July 6, 1995. Mr. Shuey explained that Durango Construction is operating a gravel pit within the coal mine permit boundary. They are using the overburden stockpile permitted as part of the coal mine. During his June 28, 1995 partial inspection of the mine he observed that the operator of the gravel pit had filled in a portion of the East Collection Ditch to create a road crossing for the scrapers to transport excess overburden from the gravel pit to the overburden stockpile. The collection ditch was totally blocked. At the time of his June 28 inspection Mr. Shuey was uncertain whether the activities had been permitted. After conferring with Harry Raney, the lead specialist for the Carbon ]unction Mine, Mr. Shuey returned on July 6 and issued the NOV. Blocking the drainage ditch for a road fill had not been permitted. Representing the operator in the assessment conference were Jim Hendricks of Oakridge Energy, and Dave West and John Griffith of Durango Construction. Mr. West explained that they had in fact installed a 21 inch culvert through the fill, however at the time of Mr. Shuey's inspection it was blocked. At the time they decided to construct the fill, they were not aware of the permitting complexities associated with the coal program. Mr. Hendricks objected to the proposed civil penalty, the fault component in particular. The proposed civil penalty was: History $0.00 Seriousness $500.00 Fault $1000.00 Good Faith $0.00 Total $1500.00 Seriousness 1 agree with the proposed penalty. Fault Mr. Hendricks objected to the proposed penalty and the associated narrative which said, "Operator was asked by inspector to fix problem by end of day, and the problem was not fixed. Operator knew of situation and chose not to remedy." Mr. Hendricks stated he was not asked by the inspector to fix the problem and he did not make a decision not to fix it. In the assessment conference, Mr. Shuey said he thought Harry Ranney had notified the operator of the problem. However, after further discussions between the two, Mr. Ranney was uncertain whether he had notified Mr. Hendricks of the problem observed by Mr. Shuey on June 28 or not.