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If the DMG proceeds with this application, then all these federal and community efforts will be rendered pointless. The proposed mine expansions will have already occurred, and the opportunity for the community to determine its own fate lost. Thus we would also like to register the above concerns in amore legalistic manner. It appears that the proposed technical revisions is premature due to applicants failure to establish a "Right of Entry" under Section 2.03.6 of the Rules and Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board Pursuant to the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act. "Each application shall contain a complete and detailed legal description of the proposed permit boundary, a description of the documents upon which the applicant bases his or her legal right to enter and begin surface coal mining operations in the permit area, and a statement as to whether that right is the subject of pending litigation. The description shall identify those documents by type and date of execution, identify the specific lands to which the document pertains, and explain the legal rights claimed by the applicant... " While the proposed action may technically apply to the current permit boundary and Bowie's fee coal reserves only, the action is intended as part of an overall mine plan that depends on access to 14 million to 24 million tons of federal coal reserves. Some factors to reinforce this statement: • Bowie has applied for a new federal coal lease of 14 to 24 million tons adjacent to their fee reserves. This is the Iron Point Tract that was the subject of a 1998 BLM Environmental Assessment. The BLM approved this lease last October on the basis of Bowie's proposed mine plan for aroom-and-pillaz operation producing a maximum of 2 million tons per yeaz (mty). However, the BLM vacated that lease decision in December after discovering that Bowie had changed its mine plans to a longwall operation capable of producing 4 mty. This is the exact mine plan being proposed in the current Technical Revisions. • Bowie's current reserves are less than 7.5 million tons. At 4 mty production, the fee coal would bemined-out in less than 2 yeazs; thus installation of a longwall is not economically feasible without additional federal coal reserves. Based on Bowie's current federal lease application, 50 to 70 percent of the total coal reserves to be mined with [his proposed new longwall aze federal coal reserves, for which Bowie has no "Right of Entry." • Bowie's 5-yeaz mine plan shows their intent to orchestrate a "seamless" transition from their fee coal into federal coal in approximately two yeazs. • Bowie is already applying to the DMG and BLM for a right of way through the federal coal reserves in order to facilitate construction of the longwall for future mining of these same federal coal reserves. Bowie has a tentative 10-yeaz contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide 3 million tons per year -which is far in excess of their fee coal reserves, and can only be met by using a longwall operation in the federal coal reserves. Bowie Resources, however, does not yet have a lease for the federal reserves that it proposes to mine. Instead, the BLM specifically withdrew the proposed lease and will conduct an Environmental Impact Statement analyzing the proposed new longwall mine. Based on this evidence, we request that the DMG cease consideration of TR # 7 until such time as the applicant can show Right of Entry for the federal coal reserves to be mined. WSERC Comments on Bowie Resources Ltd. Technical Revisions -Page 4