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~f aGrt=ivED AUG ~ 5 1996 Au i~ ~~~ 1996 Mr. Mike Long Division Duector Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology 215 Centennial Building 1313 Sherman Street Denver, Colorado 80203 Re: Permit C-81-019, Colowyo Coal Company L.P. NOVs C-96-0 and C-96-006 Dear Mr. Long: iii iiiiiiiiiiiuiii 999 5731 Sete Highway 13 Meeker, Colorado 81641 (970)8241572 (970)824-4459 FAX James A. Klger Senor Environmental Engineer Enclosed please fmd Colowyo Coal Company L.P.'s check in the amount of $3200 as payment in full for penalties assessed in the above-referenced NOVs. As explained in more detail below, Colowyo does not agree with the decisions issued on these NOVs, or with the penalty assessments. Nevertheless, Colowyo has decided to pay the assessed penalties and continue its ongoing work with the Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) to satisfy any retraining concerns with Colowyo's sediment ponds. The following is a short explanation, for the record, of Colowyo's opposition to these two NOVs: This NOV was issued, in part, as the result of the laboratory reporting a settleable solids result of 580 mg/1 for a discharge from Colowyo's Gulch A Pond. As Colowyo explained at the NOV conference, this result was anomalous -- 58% of the water could not physically have been settleable solids, as this result indicates. Upon further inquiry with the lab, Colowyo learned that the lab had not been certain how to interpret the sample results. In fact, as the subsequent letter from the lab indicated, Ito solids settled from the sample in the test. ,egg Attachment 1. The subsequent letter fmm the laboratory calling into question its previously reported sample result should have been given more weight by the conference officer than it was. While the letter notes that interpretation of the results is subjective, it also flatly states that tL4 material settled out during the test. Thus, the sample did not exceed the applicable permit limit and cannot therefore be the basis for an NOV.