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-3- SUMMARY OF THE PERMIT REVIEW HISTORY THE DESCRIPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE MINING AND RECLAMATION PLAN Western Fuels Association, Inc. has applied fora permit revision to Permit No. C-81-018 in accorddance with the requirements of the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act to mine coal from three new Federal Coal Leases at the Deserado Mine. The mine is located in Rio Blanco County, Colorado approximately 9 miles northeast of Rangely along County Road 65 near Kenney Reservoir. The permit area is within the Rangely NE and Cactus Reservoir U.S.G.S. 7 1/2 minute quadrangle maps in Sections, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 of T3N, R101W and Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 11 and 12 of T2N, R101W, within the 6th Principal Meridian. The projected project life is 24 years and total production is projected to be 32.47 million tons. Annual production of clean coal is estimated to be 1.353 million tons. Ownership of the coal is 100 percent Federal contained within five coal leases. The permit area currently encompasses 6,272.4 acres and will be increased to 9,152.4 acres following the addition to the permit of Federal coal leases C-8424, C-8425 and C-0126669. The affected area presently comprises approximately 430 acres. Current disturbed area acreage is approximately 294 acres. The size of the disturbed area will increase slightly over the remainder of the permit term as the coal processing waste disposal subareas are developed. The size of the disturbed area at the refuse disposal site will eventually reach a steady state as completed subareas are reclaimed. It is anticipated that the steady state area of disturbance at the refuse disposal site will not exceed 50 acres. I. Permit Review History The original application fora permanent regulatory program permit was received by the Division on May 7, 1980. The application was found complete on May 13, 1980. Division review of the application was coordinated with the Office of Surface Mining as a joint review to avoid duplication of effort. - -- Ade u -revi-ews-were-forwar-ded.~o the permittee on August 29, 19 arch 13, 81 (joint MLRD-OSM TEA Document) rmittee responded to the review comments in the form of several written responses submitted at various times during the review period. Division and OSM concerns were subsequently resolved and a Notice of Proposed Decision to ~~ approve the application with stipulations was published on June 8, 15, 22, an ~, 1981. No requests fora formal hearing were received. The Deserado Mine received their permit on July 27, 1981. In order to allow sufficient time to construct the mine related facilities and initiate development of the underground mine plan, an eight year permit term was granted by the Division.