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INTRODUCTION <br />The Berry Pit, located approximately 1 mile east of the town of Meeker Colorado in Rio Blanco <br />County, was initially mined in 1975 by Schmidt-Tiago Construction Company under special use <br />permit granted by Rio Blanco County at that time. There were no Mined Land Reclamation rules in <br />effect at that time. The site was initially permitted by Schmidt-Tiago Constmction Company in 1977 <br />as a limited impact 110 permit comprised of less than 10 acres. Schmidt-Tiago was also called <br />Palisade Construction. The Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division (now Division of Minerals <br />and Geology) assigned permit M-77-132 to the operation. In 1978, the permit was converted to 112 <br />status and a revised special use permit for the site was also granted by Rio Blanco County. The new <br />site consisted of approximately 42.75 acres of a dry terrace located above the White River although <br />major disturbance was limited to 5 acres. The initial mining of the terrace was targeted to supply local <br />development as well as oil shale operations in the C-B tract located in the Piceance Basin. The land <br />for this operation (called the Berry Brothers Tract) was owned by the White River Corporation, which <br />was tied to Berry Brothers Ready Mix, Inc. The initial reclamation bond for the site was $6500. <br />On September 23, 1981, the DMG permit was transferred from Schmidt-Tiago Construction <br />Company to Palisade Construction Company. The disturbance area consisted of no more than 10 <br />acres (Condition 1 of the permit). A technical revision was subsequently submitted to increase the <br />acreage to approximately 24.3 acres. The bond was also increased to $13500 for the technical revision <br />to increase the disturbed area. <br />On April 5, 1985, The DMG permit was transferred to Bar 70 Enterprises of Meeker, Colorado. This <br />company was connected to the owners, the Berry brothers and other individuals. During the 1980's <br />little tonnage was mined from the pit and a number of years passed where the tonnage sold was <br />supplied from existing stockpiles that were mined previously. <br />On January 24, 2000, The DMG permit was transferred to United Companies of Mesa County. United <br />produced and sold approximately 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year since that time. Also in the year <br />2000, United Companies was bought by O1dCastle Southwest Group Inc. The new permittee is <br />OldCastle SW Group Inc. dba United Companies. All references to the permittee as Untied <br />Berry Pit 3/02 1 <br />