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151 Interior Dec. 286
<br />`(Cite ae: 151 Interior Dec. 286, *287, 2000 WL 1740340, **1 (D.O.I.))
<br />Page 2
<br />response to a 10-day notice of a state regulatory program subsidence violation
<br />Iby an underground coal mining operation was arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse
<br />of discretion, the OSM decision upholding the state regulatory authority's
<br />action will be vacated and the case remanded for appropriate action.
<br />APPEARANCES: Ann Tatum, pro se and for Jim Tatum, Houston, Texas; Brock Wood,
<br />Esq., Office of the Regional Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior,
<br />Lakewood, Colorado, for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
<br />(Enforcement.
<br />OPINION BY DEPUTY CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE HARRIS
<br />Jim and Ann Tatum (hereinafter, Tatums or appellants) have filed separate
<br />appeals from two decisions of the Regional Director, Western Regional
<br />oordinating Center, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM),
<br />~ated August 24, 1995, and September 18, 1995, determining that the responses of
<br />the State of Colorado, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mining and
<br />eology (DMG) were appropriate action in response to a Ten-Day Notice (TDN)
<br />~ssued by OSM. OSM issued the TDN to DMG following receipt of a citizen's
<br />complaint from the Tatums alleging that an underground mining operation
<br />~onducted by Basin Resources, Inc. (BRI) (formerly, Wyoming Fuel Company), had
<br />aused subsidence damage to their home near Weston, Colorado, and damaged a
<br />~ivestock water well on their property. [FN1]
<br />I. Factual and Procedural Background
<br />**2 On January 25, 1984, BRI obtained a permanent program permit (No. C-81-
<br />13) from the State regulatory authority. The permit, as revised July 2, 1990,
<br />uthorized BRI to engage in underground coal mining operations on 9,068 acres of
<br />Federal and private land situated in Ts. 33 *288 and 34 S., R. 67 W., Sixth
<br />rincipal Meridian, Las Animas County, Colorado, in which BRI owned or leased
<br />he mineral estate. This included about 153 acres of land subsequently purchased
<br />by the Tatums in 1988 known as the "Solitario Ranch," part of which overlaid an
<br />alluvial valley floor (AVF) of the Purgatoire River. In order to prevent
<br />subsidence of the land surface from occurring within the AVF, BRI's permit
<br />specified an extraction rate of no more than 50 percent of the material
<br />•nderlying that land by the room and pillar method. BRI was otherwise permitted
<br />~o engage in longwall mining. '
<br />In May 1988, BRI proposed to extend its existing underground coal mining
<br />operations (known as "First North Main") in the Maxwell coal seam of the Raton
<br />~ormation, within its permitted area, northeast under the Colorado and Wyoming
<br />railroad right-of-way, the Purgatoire River, and the right-of-way for State
<br />Highway 12, thereby crossing under the tract of land owned by the Tatums, which
<br />~s bisected by the highway and the river. That tract of land contains an adobe
<br />_ouse, part of which dates from the early 1900's, which is located south of the
<br />river and the highway and northeast of the railroad. [FN2]
<br />~ At the time BRI proposed to extend its operations, the First North Main
<br />Yorkings were located 2,150 feet southwest of the Tatums' house. BRI initiated
<br />room and pillar mining operations underneath the Tatums' property in May 1988.
<br />Copr. ® West 2001 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works
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