GENERAL42892 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

~, 1 II I' I~' I~! I~ II~~'ll ~'~° STATE OF COLORADO I MINED LAND RECLAMATION DIVISION Department of Natural Resources 1373 Sherman St.. Room 275 Denver. CO 60203 303 866-3567 FA x: 303 632-8106 OF CO[p h~ ~o ~ 0 1. f ~r N!//~ ~ O .w ~ r876 ~ Roy Romer. Garenror Fretl R. Banta, Division Director July 11, 1991 Mr. John Spangler 1823 237 Road Silt, Colorado 81652 RE: Eastside Coal Company (File C-84-063) Dear Mr. Spangler: I would like to take this opportunity to respond to your July 1, 1991 correspondence, and to summarize our May 24, 1991 phone conversation. When reviewing an application for a mining and reclamation permit, the Mined Land Reclamation Division focuses on determining whether compliance with the Coal Regulations has been demonstrated. These regulations deal mainly with technical issues documenting whether an applicant has the ability to reclaim a mine to a pre-determined post-mining land use. We are very concerned about topsoil quantity and quality, revegetation success, ground and surface water protection. We do not evaluate a permit application in terms of many issues which are considered to be outside of our authority. These issues include aesthetics of a mine, impacts of truck traffic to local roads, noise and other socio-economic concerns. The Colorado Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act requires that operations not impair the quality of water adjacent to the mine site. We require each permittee to monitor ground and surface water quality on a periodic basis. We then evaluate these data in order to determine whether water quality is being protected. We have no authority to enforce air quality violations. The Air Pollution Control Division of the Colorado Department of Health has jurisdiction over these matters. We do, however, require coal operations to be in compliance with the standards established by Air Pollution Control. The Coal Mining Rules and Regulations require that a permittee be in compliance with applicable local requirements. In some cases, the local authority will impose a maximum permissable production limit on an operation. Our permitting process requires the applicant to disclose the anticipated mine production. It is our position that an operator cannot exceed the lower of the two production figures. An exceedance of the lower production figure