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<br />3 <br />I. PROCEDURES AND SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW PROCESS <br />H-G Coal Company applied for a partial bond release under the <br />Colorado Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act following <br />reclamation of the Hayden Gulch Mine. The mine is located in <br />Routt County, 9 miles south of Hayden, Colorado, along Routt <br />County Road 53. The mine area is located in Sections 30 and 31, <br />Township 5 North, Range 88 West of the 6th P.M. in Routt County, <br />Colorado. <br />There has been only one previous bond release at the Hayden Gulch <br />Mine. On March 19, 1988, the partial Phase One bond release of <br />approximately 319 acres became final. All of the acreage involved <br />in that partial bond release was located at the mine site east of <br />County Road 53. No acreage west of County Road 53 and no acreage <br />at the loadout were involved in the partial Phase One bond <br />release. A sum of $855,000.00 was released from the operator's <br />bond liability of $2,223,313.00, reducing the bond liability to <br />$1,368,313.00. The operator chose not to seek return of that <br />amount from the $2,300,000.00 bond instrument that the Division <br />held. <br />The approval of Technical Revision No. 63 in December of 1996 <br />provided for a bond reduction, from $1,368,313.00 to $659,327.00. <br />The reduction was a consequence of removing the H-G Loadout bond <br />liability from the H-G Mine liability. The loadout had been sold <br />in June of 1993 but the bond liability had not been adjusted at <br />that time. <br />An application for partial Phase One bond release was received by <br />the Division on July 5, 1996. The application was deemed complete <br />on September 19, 1996, after the Division received proof of <br />publication of the applicant's public notice. H-G Coal Company <br />published notice of the bond release application in The Steamboat <br />Pilot, once weekly for four consecutive weeks, beginning August <br />8, 1996. H-G Coal Company also notified land owners within and <br />adjacent to the mine permit area, and other interested parties of <br />the application for bond release, as required by Rule 3.03.2(1). <br />No comments, written objections, or requests for an informal <br />conference regarding the bond release application were received <br />by the Division. <br />The Division scheduled and conducted a bond release inspection on <br />October 9, 1996. The site inspection was conducted in accordance <br />with Rule 3.03.2(2). Because the entire surface is owned by the <br />operator, and because the Division did not receive any comments <br />from the public concerning this bond release submittal, only the <br />operator and the Office of Surface Mining were notified of this <br />inspection. Robert J. Medler of W. R. Grace, which is one of the <br />principal owning companies, Michael R. Neumann of TerraMatrix, <br />which is the operator's consulting firm and resident agent, and <br />