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3 <br />I. PROCEDURES AND SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW PROCESS <br />Walden Coal Company applied for complete bond release under the Colorado Surface <br />Coal Mining and Reclamation Act following reclamation of the Northgate I.oadout for <br />the Bourg Mine. The mine is located in Jackson County. The Northgate Loadout was <br />an off site facility located approximately two (2) miles north of the town of Cowdrey, <br />alongside Colorado State Highway 125. The Loadout permit area is located in <br />Township 11 North, Range 79 West of the 6th P.M.: Section 31: S~/zNE~/+ <br />The Division retains a surety in the amount of $214,400.00, No. 400 HE 7644, drawn on <br />the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Regrading, topsoil application and <br />seeding of the loadout facility occurred in 1988. A Phase I bond release was approved <br />on October 30, 1989, for backfilling and grading work conducted at both the mine site <br />and at the loadout. A bond reduction request was submitted in 1990. Although the <br />Division recommended approval of the reduction, comments received by other agencies <br />resulted in a denial of the request. The Office of Surface Mining interpreted the bond <br />reduction request to be a bond release. Bond release requests must comply with <br />applicable portions of Rule 3.03. <br />An application for Phase II and III bond release was received by the Division on <br />November 3, 1995. The initial publication of the public notice was not run for the <br />prescribed four (4) consecutive weeks, which required republication of the announcement <br />as per Rule 3.03.2(1). The application was deemed complete on January 3, 1996, after <br />the Division received proof of publication of the applicant's public notice. Walden Coal <br />Company published notice of the bond release application in Jackson County Star once <br />weekly for four consecutive weeks, beginning December 7, 1995. Walden Coal Company <br />also notified land owners within and adjacent to the mine permit area, and other <br />interested parties of the application for bond release, as required by Rule 3.03.2(1). <br />No comments, written objections, or requests for an informal conference regarding the <br />bond release application were received by the Division. <br />The Division scheduled and conducted a bond release inspection on January 22, 1996. <br />The site inspection was conducted in accordance with Rule 3.03.2(2). Parties present at <br />the inspection included Mr. Scott Patten of Walden Coal Company and Janet Binns of <br />the Division of Minerals and Geology. The Division was notified by the Office of Surface <br />Mining, Denver Field Office on January 17, 1996, that no representative from the OSM <br />would attend the inspection. The surface landowner, the Wyoming and Colorado <br />Railroad Co., Inc., was notified, yet did not accompany the inspection. <br />