2004-08-30_REVISION - M1977573 (2)

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BOND RECALCULATION Cleazly, the amount of bond to be released by this request is tied to the amount of land surface that has not been released. Water, although affected land, does not actually count in the bond amount because there is nothing to do to reclaim water surface. Therefore, the amount of water surface is not counted in the amount of bond to be released as it actually has a zero reclamation cost value. Unfortunately, calculating the actual amount of land surface where various reclamation actions have been taken is a very difficult problem. The problem is that there have been a long series of various releases of small portions of the total permit azea, mainly south of the river. These various releases involved releases of unaffected land that was never mined (Stage Z), unaffected land along the river for the Corps of Engineers' Fisheries Rehabilitation Project, three lakes, various pazcels of other unaffected land along the highway, a release of the industrial area, and the exclusion of the Goodnight Barn site. On top of that aze older releases of lake and shore azeas on the west end of the operation. Unfortunately, the precise boundaries of only some of these parcels are well identified with others being vague. Sorting out exactly what land was released and what was not released is an incredibly difficult task. In addition to these difficulties, the original maps show various boundaries, particularly along the river, that are now indefinite because of changes in the river channel since the permit was issued nearly 30 yeazs ago. Attempts to reconcile the vazious acreage values resulted in many different values that exhibited a considerable range. There is no reliable way to determine which of these final values is correct or if any of them are correct. To simplify the problem a different approach has been taken. Clearly, the intent of the release is to remove from the perntit all remaining perntted lands south of the Arkansas River, which, unfortunately, is the number that seems to be impossible to determine accurately. The resulting permit, after that release, would only include affected land north of the Arkansas River. Fortunately, that area is easily and accurately defined because it has not been influenced by the menagerie of releases that have occurred south of the river. That value is now 129.25 acres. Therefore, that value is the one that applies to the permitted land that would exist after all the releases aze deducted from the most recent, reliable permit area value. The amendment submitted in 1997 that added the majority of the land north of the river had a pemvtted acreage value of 341.67 acres. So, if one subtracts 129.25 from 341.67, an acreage of 212.42 acres is left. This value represents all the permitted land in 1997 that was south of the river less the land released north of the river for the Corps of Engineers' project. In theory, if one were to subtract all the land that has been released south of the river from 212.42, less the Request for Partial Release Pueblo West Pit M-1977-573 Page 2 of 3