GENERAL38762

• Permit No: C1981038
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 11/9/1998
• From: BLM
• To: STEVE WOLCOTT
• Permit Index Doc Type: GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

West Roatcap Creek. There is some monitoring of water resources in the West Roatcap drainage
system.
The two-track access south of the West Portal was closed at the time of the construction of the new
portal because there were no prescriptive rights of record (rights-of-way, grazing uses, etc.) for the road
at that time. In addition, the road was inaccessible due to natural slides. The mine plan is ambiguous
about what will happen to the road upon reclamation. The determination of whether to return the area to
original contours or reopen the access will be made at the time of reclamation.
The five Bowie leases were made into a logical mining unit in 1991 to allow for a uniform, logical
development of the coal resource. Bowie has submitted a letter and rationale to BLM requesting a
suspension of operations. As there are still coal reserves in the five-lease area, it would be premature
for Bowie to be expected to reclaim the portals at this time. If the suspension is granted by the BLM, it
will allow Bowie time to mine the coal at a later date. It would have been best if Bowie had been able to
remove all the coal reserves, but due to unavoidable conditions they weren't. They were hoping to
remove the reserves from the five-lease area from the Bowie No. 2 portal, but that option is not available
at this time. Upon termination of mining operations, Bowie is required to perform reclamation. There is
absolutely no way they can get out of reclaiming the mine site. If for same reason, they don't complete
reclamation, then the funds they have put up for bond reclamation will be used to reclaim the site. The
bond available for reclamation for the Bowie No. 1 Mine is greater than four million dollars. The
lessee/operator cannot "avoid paying for reclamation".
We are not aware that Bowie has any existing violations and this was confirmed with the CDMG as well
as the Office of Surface Mining. Recently, there were environmental concerns with coal dust and a coal
pile at the Bowie loadout facility. They stopped using the coal pile and Bowie required their trucking
contractor to cover the coal haul trucks while on the highway thereby eliminating the problems.
For the most part the special stipulations in the coal lease are incorporated into the mine and
reclamation permit. We review the data submitted to the CDMG to assure the interests of the BLM and
the public are being followed. The public, including yourself are encouraged to participate in the
permitting process, indeed it is of extreme importance that you do participate so you can be aware of
what the mine is doing and provide comments if your interests are affected. The contact at the Colorado
Division of Minerals and Geology for this permit is Joe Dudash; his telephone number is [phone].
The complete mine plan is 15 to 20' volumes and is available for review at the Bowie Mine Office, or at
CDMG in Denver. If you need more information from the Mine Plan please call Bill Bear at the mine
office at [phone], Joe Dudash or Lynn Lewis at [phone].
Sincerely yours,
i~' `.."~
Allan J. Bel
Area Manager
Enclosures
cc. Joe.Dudash, CDMG, Permit C-81-038
Jim Stover
Bill Bear