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The mining permit and the CDOT access permit require the Applicant to do <br />construction work on the highway. The highway is an off-site road that will be <br />substantially upgraded to support the operation of the quarry. The CDOT permit <br />will no doubt require re-grading, re-seeding, etc. within the right-of--way when the <br />work in completed. <br />However, the work required of the Applicant to significantly widen the <br />highway to mitigate the effects of the mining operation has not been done. In other <br />words, the affected land has not "been reclaimed" under any possible interpretation <br />of the words. <br />The plain language of the statutory exception relied upon by the MLRB <br />cannot be stretched as far as the MLRB asserts. Off-site roads that will be <br />substantially upgraded to support the operation of the quarry in the future and on <br />which no work has even begun cannot be "land that has been reclaimed pursuant to <br />an approved plan or otherwise." Accordingly, the MLRB's interpretation of its <br />enabling statute as asserted in its Answer Brief is arbitrary and capricious and <br />beyond its statutory authority. <br />By its erroneous interpretation of the statute, the MLRB excludes all of the <br />Sanitation District's sewer treatment facility from the mapping and other <br />requirements of a permit relating to significant manmade structures within 200 feet <br />of the "affected land" except the Sanitation District's domestic well. <br />s <br />