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Summary <br />The Review Process <br />National King Coal, Inc., received a five-year permit for the King Coal Mine <br />on March 29, 1982: Pursuant to Rule 2.08.5, the Division notified National <br />King Coal on July 3; 1986 that a permit renewal application needed to be <br />submitted no later than September 30; 1986, The Division received a complete <br />permit renewal application on September 30; 1486. The Division forwarded <br />adequacy review letters on December 29; 1986, February 2, 1987 and April 21, <br />1987, National King Coal responded to these review letters on March 10, 1987 <br />and May 22, 1987: National King Coal has resolved all of the Division's <br />concerns identified during the renewal process: <br />Since Federal resources are involved, copies of the permit renewal application <br />were forwarded to the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) for review. The OSM <br />notified the Division in a December 8; 1986 letter that "The renewal <br />application does not involve any substantive changes and therefore; has been <br />categorized as a simple renewal for processing purposes." As such, the OSM <br />did not perform a review nor were any further comments forwarded to the <br />Division: <br />Description of the Environment <br />The King Coal Mine is located approximately seven miles southwest of Hesperus; <br />Colorado along La Plata County Road 120 in Sections 31 and 32, T35N, R11W <br />N. M. P, M. <br />An on site survey and a review of the records maintained by the Colorado State <br />Historic Preservation Officer indicate no sites eligible for inclusion on the <br />National Register of Historic Places: No new surface disturbance is planned <br />for this site. <br />The proposed permit area lies in the upper rim of the San Juan Basin: This <br />basin is an asymmetric structural basin in northwestern New Mexico and <br />southwestern Colorado: Sedimentary rocks in the area are of both marine and <br />non-marine origin: <br />The formation of interest in the area of the mine site is the Mesaverde Group <br />which overlies the Mancos Shale: The Mesaverde Group is composed of three <br />major units (in ascending order): Point Lookout Sandstone; Menefee Formation, <br />and Cliffhouse Sandstone: <br />The coal seam to be mined occurs in the Menefee. This formation is composed <br />of interbedded sandstone, shale, carbonaceous shale; and coal. The King Coal <br />operation removes one coal seam from the Menefee during the course of its <br />operations: <br />Ground water occurs in the Hay Gulch alluvium adjacent to the mine site and in <br />the Point Lookout Sandstone. The Hay Gulch alluvium is nearly saturated year <br />round. The Point Lookout Sandstone aquifer, nearly 275 feet below the mine <br />floor; is unaffected by mining operations: <br />-2- <br />