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IL CRITERIA AND SCHEDULE FOR BOND RELEASE A. Phase II Bond Release Criteria Rule 3.03.1(2)(b) states, "Up to eighty-five percent of the applicable bond amount shall be released upon the establishment of vegetation which supports the approved post mining land use and which meets the approved success standard for cover... based on statistically valid data collected during a single year of the liability period". In regard to Phase II bond release, Rule 3.03.2(3)(b) also states, " No more than sixty (60) percent of the bond shall be released so long as the lands to which the release would be applicable are contributing suspended solids to streamflow or runoff outside the permit area in excess of premining levels as determined by baseline data or in excess of levels determined on adjacent nonmined aeeas". For the Phase II bond release criteria, the dMG evaluated topsoil replacement and the sedimentation off the permit area. The approved reclamation plan calls for a minimum of 9 inches of topsoil in the 1984 area and a minimum of 1 I inches in the 1988 reclaimed azea. The establishment of vegetation is discussed with the Phase III criteria ahd observations below, since the Bourg Mine bond release application is a combined Phase II and Phase III application. The Phase III standards are inclusive of, but more comprehensive than, the Phase II standards. B. Phase III Bond Release Criteria Rule 3.03.1(2)(c) states that the final portion of the performance bond, "shall be released when the petmittee has successfully completed all surface mining reclamation operations in accordance with the approved reclamation plan, and the final inspection procedures of 3.03.2 have been satisfied. This shall not be before the expiration of the period specified for revegetation responsibility in 3.02.3." Rule 3.03.1(4) states, "No bond shall be fully released until all reclamation requirements of these rules and the Act are fully met...". The same rule goes on to state, "No acreage shall be released from the permit area until all surface coal mining and reclamation operations on that acreage have been completed in accordance with the approved reclamation plan." The liability period at the Bourg Mine is a minimum often years. For the earlier reclamation, this was initiated in 1984 when the 29 acre East Pit was seeded. Final seeding of the remaining 83 acres occurred in 1988. The ten year liability period for final bond release ended in 1998. The approved reclamation plan says revegetation success at the Bourg Mine will be based on vegetative cover, herbaceous production, woody plant density and species diversity. The standards are presented starting on page F-10 of the permit application. Weighted cover and production data from the two reclaimed areas are to be statistically comparable to the weighted area average of the grassland and big sagebrush reference areas. The woody plant density standard is 2,000 Bourg Mine 3 Final Bond Release Permit No. C-81-021 January I8, 2000