ENFORCE37263

• Permit No: C1980007
• IBM Index Class Name: Enforcement
• Doc Date: 8/15/1997
• Doc Name: WEST ELK MINE PN C-80-007 REQUEST TO VACATE NOV NOS CV-97-008 CV-97-009 AND CV-97-010
• From: MOUNTAIN COAL CO
• To: DMG
• Violation No.: CV1997010
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

;..
Mountain Coal Company
West Elk Mine
Post Office Sax 597
Somerset, Colorado 87434
Telephone [phone]
Fax [phone]
August 11, 1997
•
Mr. Michael Long
DIVISION OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGY
Office of Mined Land Reclamation
1313 Sherman Street, Room 2 L 5
Denver, CO 80203
•
RECt=1V~D
AUG 15 1991
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Re: West Elk Mine, Permit No. C-80-007, Request to Vacate NOV Nos. CV-97-008, CV-97-
009, and CV-97-010
Dear Mr. Long:
Mountain Coal Company (MCC) respectfully requests that the Division vacate the above-
referenced Notices of Violation (NOV) based on the information and discussions provided below.
NOV CV-97-008
This NOV was "issued as a result of ... light-use road berm material being deposited in the
Sylvester Gulch stream" in alleged violation of a number of regulations including, most
prominently, 4.03.3(1)(a), 4.03.3(1)(b), 4.03.3(2)(b), 4.03.3(2)(d), 4.03.3(4)(d), 4.05.1(1),
4.05.5(I)(a), 4.05.5(I)(c) and 4.06.1(1). Specifically, the Division bases the violation on
MCC's ...
"failure to design, construct or reconstruct, and maintain light-use roads to control erosion
and siltation as evidenced from the damaged silt fencing and addition of silt and suspended
solids and sediment to streamflow; locating road berm construction materials in the
channel of an intermittent or perennial stream; failure to locate light-use roads to minimize
downstream sedimentation; alteration ofnatural-channel drainageways for the purpose of
light-use road construction; failure to minimize disturbance of the prevailing hydrologic
balance; failure to segregate topsoil and subsoils from other material as evidenced by the
placement road berms on top of vegetated areas along the Sylvester Gulch stream
channel."
For the reasons set forth in detail below, MCC respectfully maintains that the foregoing
allegations do not constitute violations of the cited rules.
First, the light-use road that is the subject of this violation is a historic jeep trail that pre-dates all
of MCC's mine construction and facilities. To minimize disturbance, thus reducing erosion and
sediment generation potential in compliance with Rule 4.03.3(1)(a), MCC utilized as much of this
existing road as possible for the initial access to the drill sites for the electric borehole,