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<br />JIM and ANN TATUM <br />P.O. BOX 28 <br />WESTON, COLORADO 81091 <br />(719) 868-3310 <br />July 21, 2003 <br />Mr. David Berry <br />Division of Mineral and Geology <br />1313 Sherman, Room 215 _ <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Mr. Berry: <br />RE~E~~ED <br />JU( 23 2003 <br />t1N~~ oiiyineials <br />S ~eployY <br />I am in receipt of your July 2, 2003 letter and it is gratifying to see the agency <br />take action, even if it is years late. <br />Where does DMG or anyone else get the idea that I am under any obligation <br />what-so-ever to do anything with the State Engineer's office to have the ownership and <br />right to use wells drilled long before the law quoted as justification for the loss of my <br />wells? Does DMG claim that I am required to file on pre-eacisting wells? If this is the <br />case it is contrary to the law and the testimony in the 1997 Basin/Tatum trial. I believe <br />this frivolous defense was first asserted about the time the various agencies we fumed to <br />for help were asserting that methane would not kilt our vegetation as we watched it die <br />before our eyes. <br />Yes, Ron Thompson committed perjury under oath when testifying that the <br />airshaft was cased top to bottom. We now have the testimony of IMSHA inspector Don <br />Jordan, Basin mine foreman David Huey and local contractor, Joe Febbraro. They all say <br />that they were awaze to a certainty that the shaft was not cased except for the very top lip <br />of the shaft. Small wonder that a fourteen (14) foot borehole through the water bearing <br />strata to the open mine drained the strata that these wells depended on. Why didn't <br />someone look into the reason the airshaft flowed so much water, at least until the strata <br />was depleted? <br />Enclosed is a copy of a Quit-Claim Deed from Basin, North Central Energy to <br />Ron Thompson executed shortly after the first trial. This doesn't pass the smell test and <br />certainly flies in the face of Federal Law involving dishonesty which is "it has to avoid <br />the appearance of impropriety." <br />Your records should show that methane gas leaked profusely after the concrete lid <br />was placed on the airshaft -surface destruction of grass and vegetation is well <br />demonstrated from methane gas a short distance away and of course the lack of <br />vegetation around this uncased airsha$ is not hard to understand. <br />