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"prevail" on permit renewals, since the right of successive renewal <br />places the burden on opponents of the permits. The minor amount of <br />additional mining that would occur during the period of temporary <br />relief will not interfere with any person's rights to protest the <br />renewal, and to cause the Division's decision to be overturned and <br />the permits to be revoked, if the Board agrees. <br />(iii) The permit extension will not adversely affect <br />public health or safety or the environment. Basin will remain <br />subject to all current permit enforcement and the statutes and <br />rules governing coal mining. No activities will be conducted <br />during the period of permit extension that are out of the ordinary <br />for Basin's operation. All of the area that will be mined under <br />already has been approved for mining under the existing permits, or <br />revisions thereof. <br />(iv) The Division has not denied the permit, in whole or <br />in part. If the Division proposes to deny the permit renewal, this <br />temporary. relief will not actually grant the permits. That could <br />not. take place until the formal hearing when the renewal <br />applications are reviewed in full. The request for the January 26 <br />hearing is simply to grant the temporary relief. Therefore, the <br />relief requested is not the grant of a right which already has been <br />denied. <br />Basin requests that an order of the Board granting the <br />requested temporary relief be issued on January 26, 1994, at the <br />Board hearing. Basin believes that the relief requested would best <br />serve the public interest, and best fulfill the Board's mandate to <br />administer the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act, as <br />well as give Basin the opportunity to continue to mine, clean and <br />ship coal, and avoid the potentially dire results of a shutdown at <br />this critical stage of its operation. At the same time, no other <br />person with any interests adverse to Basin or who are opposed to <br />issuance of permit renewals will be harmed by the Board granting <br />the relief requested. All of the procedural protections for such <br />persons afforded in the Act and the Board's rules, including <br />requests for public hearings of the Board or judicial review of a <br />final decision on the permits, will continue to be available to <br />such persons. <br />Basin requests that the Board give this request its immediate <br />and favorable attention. <br />-3- <br />+~,r. <br />