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DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL REST` "~s 11" I nm ~.,~~~~",~~ III III III III IIII III OURCES~ ~ 999 D. Monte Pascoe. E*ecutme Director 111N1':U LANI) I~H:I;LA111A771)IV 423 Centennial Building. 1313 Sherman Street Denver, Colorado 80203 Tel (30~) 839-3567 David C. Shelton Director May 19, 1981 Mr. Narris Sherman Arnold & Porter Lincoln Center 1660 Lincoln Street Denver, Colorado 80269 Re: Western Fuels Request for Informal Conference and Unsuitability Petition Dear Mr. Sherman: In your May 8, 1981 letter captioned as above you requested, in behalf of the county commissioners of Rio Blanco County, the holding of an informal conference (C.R.S. 1973, 34-33-118(6)). You enclosed with uour letter the commissioners' petition to designate as unsuitable under 34-33-126 some 5595 acres of land. Unfortunately, both the request for an informal conference and the petition for designation as unsuitable were received after expiration of the time specified in the governing act and therefore cannot be acted upon. The time for filing the request and the petition expired thirty days after the last pub- lication of the notice described in 34-33-118(2), on March 2, 1981. You have suggested that the Division's tardy mailing to the county of the notice required by 39-33-118(3) operated to extend the county's time to request an informal conference. While we regret our tardiness in mailing that notice, we have concluded that the delay was not prejudicial to your client, which had ample actual notice of the Western Fuels application. Additional proof of this was supplied in Attachment B to the county's unsuitabil- ity petition, from which it appears that the comrrussioners were in direct contact with the project operators long before the notice was required to have been mailed. The greatest portion of the 5595 acres consists, we believes of federal lands, over which the Division has no unsuitability jurisdiction. 34-33-126(4). As to the minor portion of the area which is privately owned, the applicant's mine plan does not call for actual mining operations on such area. The comments of the county commissioners on the Western Fuels application have been considered most carefully. We appreciate receiving them.