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JUSTIFICATION OF SETTLEFIENT AGREEMENT FOR NOV C-91-034 Conference Summar NOV C-91-034 was issued by Cathy Begej of the Division on December 31, 1991, based on an inspection of records conducted on her December 17-19, 1991 inspection of the Energy Fuels Coal, Inc. (EFCI) Southfield Mine. The NOV was issued for "failure to identify ownership of other surface coal mining operations" and cited Section 34-33-110(2)(d> of the Act and Rule 2.03.4(3)(d), of the Regulations. Ms. Begej explained that the NOV was issued based on the fact that Mr. John R. Adams, an owner/controller of EFCI was also an owner/controller of two other companies currently operating coal mines in Colorado - Kerr Coal Company (Marr Strip) and Energy Fuels Mining Company (Raton Creek Mine). Mr. Adams' affiliation with Kerr Coal Company and Energy Fuels Mining Company was not listed in the Southfield Mine Permit Application which had been updated pursuant to an April, 1990 permit revision. Rule 2.03.4(d) requires that, for "each person who owns or controls the applicant under the definition of "owned or controlled" ... in 1.04(83a), ... each additional name, ... Federal or State permit number ... under which the person owns or controls, or previously owned or controlled, a surface coal mining and reclamation operation in the United States within the 5 years preceding the date of the application" shall be provided. Mr. Al Weaver, representing EFCI, acknowledged the fact that Mr. Adams' affiliation with the two other companies was not specified in the permit application. Mr. Weaver had not been directly involved in the preparation of the April, 1990 permit revision application, but he indicated that the consultant who did prepare the application was under the impression that the regulations did not require a listing of the other operations in which John R. Adams was involved. At this point in the proceedings, I stated by opinion that the fact of the violation and penalty assessment could not be prudently evaluated solely on the basis of the current regulations pertaining to Identification of Interests (Section 2.03.4), but would need to include a consideration of the regulations which were in effect in April, 1990. My reasoning is that these regulations were significantly revised in January of 1991. The revised regulations are much more explicit in their requirements and require more detailed information on "owners and controllers", a term which is defined in the new regulations but had not been defined previously. Although the new regulations became effective in January, 1991, it had been the policy of the Division to require app]icants to amend their permits to come into compliance with the revised regulations during the course of permit renewals, midterm reviews or permit revisions, and coal operators had been advised of this policy. No permit revisions, renewals or mid-terms had been initiated with respect to the Southfield Mine subsequent to the referenced regulation amendments, and so the Southfield permit application had not been amended to reflect the more detailed Identification of Interests regulations. I subsequently reviewed the regulations in effect at the time of the April, 1990 permit revision submittal, along with the Identification of Interests section of the Southfield permit application, as it existed at the time of the December, 1991 inspection.