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Reclamation was substantially funded by proceeds of the Mid Continent Resources <br />bankruptcy proceeding. The bankruptcy plan provided funds for reclamation of the site; <br />however, funds were available only as liquidation of the company assets was completed. <br />As a result, funding for reclamation work was limited, and only became available on a <br />periodic basis. Therefore, areas that were ranked high on the reclamation priority list <br />were not always reclaimed in the order of priority because adequate funding may not <br />have been available to complete the job. For this reason, some sites with a lesser priority, <br />but with alesser-estimated cost, were reclaimed before areas with a higher priority. <br />In general, land ownership was not a factor in determining when or how an individual <br />area or facility would be reclaimed. The only time that land ownership became a factor <br />was in determining timing of reclamation of a portion of the privately held property. At <br />one point during the reclamation process, the bankruptcy trustee objected to a proposed <br />reclamation project, and subsequently withheld bankruptcy funds earmarked for <br />reclamation. As a result of a 1997 suit filed in District court, reclamation work was <br />substantially stopped for one construction season. As part of the settlement of the suit, a <br />schedule for completing reclamation of the privately held property was negotiated. <br />DRMS first began work at Coal Basin in the fall of 1994 when a contractor was hired to <br />maintain drainage ditches at the site in anticipation of spring runoff: Some amount of <br />stormwater management was also accomplished at various mine entry areas and at other <br />site facilities. Reclamation construction began in earnest during the summer of 1995, and <br />was substantially completed by the end of 2001. <br />Since the completion of the 2001 construction season, only two reclamation projects were <br />undertaken at Coal Basin; one funded by the Inactive Mines Program at a pre-law coal <br />refuse pile located near Mine 5, and one funded by a Non-Point Source grant using <br />forfeited bond money as a match. Excepting these projects, construction at the site <br />between 2002 and 2006 has consisted of maintenance activities. <br />Completed Reclamation Proiects <br />A brief description of the various reclamation projects is provided below. These brief <br />descriptions provide an overview of the scope of each project in the context of <br />accomplishing reclamation of the entire site. <br />1995 <br />Springy Maintenance. Snowmelt runoff was extreme in the late spring of 1995. As a <br />result of both the runoff sediment volume and work previously completed by Mid <br />Continent Resources, the Dutch Creek Flume began to fail during the runoff'. A <br />