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j i i <br />A proposed decision on the application was scheduled for 7uly 3, 2001, and extended to July 30, <br />2001. <br />Permit History <br />Permit C-1984-065 <br />Storm King Mines Inc submitted the initial application for Permit C-84-065 for the Coal Ridge <br />No. 1 Mine on Mazch 12, 1984. The company changed its name to New Castle Energy <br />Corporation (NCEC) on July 26, 1985. The permit was first issued on October 9, 1985 and <br />renewed on December 10, 1989. A corridor of land was added to the pemut area fora 2-inch <br />water line (March 25, 1991) from the facilities area of the permit to the Colorado River. The <br />permit was transferred to NCIG Financial, Inc, on July 10, 1991. The permit was renewed on <br />January 30, 1993 and on February 28, ] 997. A partial Phase I bond release was approved in 1995 <br />(SL-Ol). A noncontiguous pre-existing industrial site was approved for a coal loadout facility <br />(located in the Clough Industrial Park at Lacy, Colorado), but the site was never used and was <br />later deleted from the permit (1996). The waterline was removed, and the waterline corridor was <br />removed from the permit in 1999. The life of mine plan encompassed over 5,400 acres, of which <br />approximately 2,484.3 acres are currently permitted. <br />Operation Plan <br />The Wheeler seam was to be mined by hydraulic methods [an exploration program and a <br />hydraulic mining test (in conjunction with the exploration program} preceded development]. <br />Entries within the coal seam were designed to move upslope so that gravity would have caused <br />the slurry of coal and water to flow from the mining section to the portal. Coal was to be <br />transported by a water flume to a preparation facility. The coal was then to be dewatered, and <br />stored for shipment by rail to customers out of the Lacy loadout facility. <br />Development operations commenced in October 1986. Topsoil was salvaged over 35 <br />(Footnote ])acres of the disturbed area on the site (twenty-one inches of the Heldt silt clay and <br />16 inches of Nihil stony loam were removed and were stockpiled on site). The stockpiles <br />consisted of 59,682 cubic yazds. Two entranceway portals were driven by a roadheader <br />approximately 500 feet into the hillside. Coal seams were not reached, hydraulic mining never <br />began, and coal was not produced. Development operations were discontinued in March 1987. <br />The decision was made in 1993 to reclaim the site, and reclamation operations were initiated in <br />1994. <br />(Footnote 1) 35 acres were reported in the Permit Third Renewal Findings of <br />January 14, 1997. The total number of acres disturbed was reported as 45.2 in <br />the 2000 Annual Reclamation Report (ARR). The 2000 ARR report also indicates <br />that there remains 4.4 acres of disturbance in long-term reclamation <br />facilities, and 2.4 acres in permanent disturbance (roads). No record was <br />found whereby there was additional disturbance between 1997 and 2000. The <br />disturbed acreage of the 2000 ARR is considered the most accurate. <br />3 July 25, 2001 <br />