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<br />Mr. Robert Weaver -2- December 19, 1995 <br />Rule 5.03.7(4) allows the DMG to consider an operator's inability to comply in assessing civil <br />penalties. The DMG acknowledges that you have worked to the best of your abilities and have <br />used all available means to proceed with reclamation of the site. Your failure to comply is not the <br />result of a lack of diligence, but rather of an inability to comply. You have not mined coal since <br />1992, when unsafe ground conditions caused the closure of the O.C. No. 2 Mine. You have <br />worked at a full-time job away from the mine since then, and have cooperated with the DMG to <br />the best of your available means to maintain the site. This effort included portal closure and <br />structural and debris removal. Given certain personal and fmancial constraints explained in your <br />letter received December 18, 1995, you are no longer able to maintain the site or effect final <br />reclamation. <br />If CO C-95-028 were allowed to extend for the potential maximum duration of 30 days, the only <br />result would be to escalate the associated civil penalty burden. You have worked as diligently as <br />possible to comply with the reclamation requirements; however, you are not able to proceed any <br />further. Additional civil penalty accumulation would not provide any benefit or motivation in <br />effecting final site reclamation. Additional penalty accumulation would only be punitive and <br />harmful to an individual who has worked towards compliance to the best of his available means. <br />If a large penalty sum was accumulated, and ordered payable to the State, collection would be <br />unlikely. In fact, you would likely be forced into personal banlQUptcy. This is not appropriate in <br />this case. <br />As mentioned above, the site is in a stable condition at this time. There is no imminent harm <br />situation. The sediment and drainage control system is in place and functional. <br />At your request, the DMG is expediting the permit revocation and bond forfeiture procedures. <br />The currently held bond of $36,000.00 is adequate to effect proper reclamation of the O.C. No. 2 <br />site. Cessation Order C-95-025 is therefore terminated to avoid unnecessary civil penalty <br />accumulation, because there is no imminent harm situation, and because DMG is proceeding as <br />quickly as possible with bond forfeiture and site reclamation. <br />Order to Show Cause Whv Permit No. C-80-002 Should Not Be Suspended or Revoked <br />An Order to Show Cause Why Permit No. C-80-002 Should Not Be Suspended or Revoked (Show <br />Cause Order) is also included with this correspondence. Rule 5.03.3(5) requires that when a <br />permittee fails to abate a notice of violation or cessation order, the Administrator (DMG Director) <br />shall review the permittee's history of compliance to determine whether a pattern of violation <br />exists, and shall issue a Show Cause Order. I have reviewed the compliance history for the <br />O.C. No. 2 Mine Permit No. C-80-002. While there is no pattern of violations as defined by <br />Rule 5.03.3(2)(a), you have failed to abate NOV C-95-025 and CO C-95-028. As a result, the <br />DMG must issue the enclosed Show Cause Order. <br />We are recommending that this matter be taken to the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board <br />(Board) as soon as possible to expedite the permit revocation and bond forfeiture process, and to <br />