GENERAL55648

• Permit No: M1977342
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 3/4/1994
• From: STOLLER
• To: HENDERSON MINE
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Stoller
Mazch 4, 1994
Mr. Jay Jones
Henderson Mine
P. O. Box 68
Empire, Colorado 80438
Deaz Jay:
In follow-up to our phone conversation of eazlier today, I am enclosing a copy of my
1977 remazks explaining the then newly passed Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Act.
Also enclosed is a copy of the agenda which indicates that the workshop at which the
remazks were made included significant participation by state officials chazg;ed with
implementing the new la~.~. I had been asked to speak at the workshop because of my
extensive involvement in the General Assembly's consideration of hardrock reclamation
legislation.
In the first full pazagraph on page 2, I state that "the General Assembly clearly intended
to exclude the surface impacts of subsidence from the reclamation requirements imposed
by HB 1065." Until you called a couple of days ago, I was not aware that anyone had
questioned the legislative intent which, admittedly, could have been mon: easily
understood with a simple exclusion of subsidence from the definition of "affected land."
] suspect what has happened, with the passage of time, is that people go to the "affected
land" definition, fail to find an exclusion for subsidence and jump to the conclusion that it
is covered by the Act. Unfortunately, it is not the failure to exclude subsidence from
"affected land," but the failure to include susidence within the definition of "mining
operation" which provides the answer.
A "mining operation," under the Act, in the case of underground mining, inclucles only
the disposal of refuse from underground and certain other enumerated activities. The
named activities are transportation, concentrating, milling, evaporation and other
processing. Note that subsidence is not enumerated.
Stoller Alining Services. 4891 Independence St., Suite 270, Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033 [phone] Fax (30:i) 456-0860