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Summary The Review Process On May 24 1996, the Division notified Seneca Coal Company that its permit for the Seneca II Mine would expire February 17, 1997. On August 19, 1996, the Division received an application for renewal of a valid, existing permit from Seneca Coal Company for the Seneca II Mine. Since a complete application for renewal was received 180 days prior to expiration of the previous permit, Seneca Coal Company is assured of the right to continue mining under that permit during the review of the renewal application. The application was deemed complete and appropriate agencies notified of the application on August 21, 1996. Seneca Coal Company published public notice of its application for permit renewal in the Steamboat Pilot during four consecutive weeks, beginning September 5, 1996. No comments regazding this permit renewal were received by the Division. The Applicant Violator System (AVS) was queried on December 20, 1996 and December 23, 1996. The system recommended an "issue" for the permit renewal. The system was queried again on June 2 resulting in a recommendation to "conditionally issue" the permit renewal because an operator of Peabody Holding Company, Inc was associated with the violator, Zeigler and Catawba. A settlement agreement currently exists for the violations. On June 3, 1997, the Office of Surface Mining issued a recommendation of "other." The AVS data is accurate but, because of the U.S. Court of Appeals invalidated OSM's 1988 ownership and control regulations, OSM cannot support a permit block. Therefore, stipulation 31 was added to the permit. On December 17, 1996, the Division submitted an adequacy review of the renewal application. The requested information was received by the Division on Mazch 3, May 29, and June 4, 1997. The changes to the permit included updated ownership and control information for Seneca Coal Company and parent companies, changes in the surface and ground water monitoring plan, and a revised backfilling and grading schedule. Descri~on of the Environment The Seneca II Mine is located in northwest Colorado, approximately nine miles southeast of Hayden in Routt County. The Seneca II Mine lies 7 miles east of the Seneca II-W Mine, Permit No. C-82-057, and 4 miles east of the Yoast Mine, Permit No. C-94-082. See Figure 1 for further detail. The mining area can be found on the Milner Quadrangle 7.5 Minute Series Map. The coal form the Seneca II Mine is hauled over county and private roadways by private hauler to the Hayden Station Power Plant operated by Public Service of Colorado. Elevations at the mine site range from 6,600 feet to 8,100 feet above mean sea level. 5