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4 <br />II. CRITERIA AND SCHEDULE FOR BOND RELEASE <br />PHASE II and PHASE III <br />Rule 3.03.1(2)(b) states, "Up to eighty-five percent of the applicable bond amount shall be <br />released upon the establishment of vegetation which supports the approved postmining land use <br />and which meets the approved success standard for cover... based on statistically valid data <br />collected during a single year of the Iiability period". In regard to Phase II bond release, Rule <br />3.03.2(3)(b) also states, " No more than sixty (60) percent of the bond shall be released so long <br />as the lands to which the release would be applicable are contributing suspended solids to <br />streamflow or runoff outside the permit area in excess of pre-mining levels as determined by <br />baseline data or in excess of levels determined on adjacent non-mined areas". <br />Rule 3.03.1(2)(c) states that the final portion of performance bond, "shall be released when the <br />permittee has successfully completed all surface coal mining reclamation operations in <br />accordance with this approved reclamation plan, and the final inspection procedures of 3.03.2 <br />have been satisfied. This shall not be before the expiration of the period specified for <br />revegetation responsibility in 3.02.3." Rule 3.03.1(4) states, " No bond shall be fully released <br />until all reclamation requirements of these Rules and the Act are fully met...". The same rule <br />goes on to state, " No acreage shall be released from the permit area until all surface coal <br />mining and reclamation operations on that acreage have been completed in accordance with the <br />approved reclamation plan " <br />The Bourg Mine reclamation plan calls for the postmining land use for the Northgate Loadout <br />to be industrial. An affidavit signed October 1, 1982 from the Union Pacific Railroad, the <br />surface owner of the loadout in 1982 when the loadout was incorporated into the Bourg permit <br />(Technical Revision No. 1), declares that the Northgate Loadout had been developed and <br />utilized as a coal loading facility prior to August 3, 1977. In addition the Division received a <br />letter from the Union Pacific Railroad Company, dated September 2, 1982, requesting that the <br />Northgate Loadout be reclaimed to an industrial site and not to natural vegetation. In <br />consideration of this information, Rules 3.02.3(2)(c), 4.15.8(1)(b), 4.15.10(3), and 4.18(5)(k) apply <br />to the Northgate Loadout. <br />These rules state: <br />3.02.3(2)(c); For lands with approved industrial or commercial, or residential post-mining <br />land-use, the minimum period of liability shall continue until the permittee demonstrates <br />that development of such land use has substantially commenced and is likely to be <br />achieved, and until compliance with the revegetation requirement of 4.15.10(2) or <br />alternative requirements of 4.15.10(3) is demonstrated. <br />4.15.8(1)(b); In the case of previously mined land or areas to be developed for industrial <br />or residential use, the requirements of 4.15.10 shall apply. <br />