2007-12-04_ENFORCEMENT - C1996083

• Permit No: C1996083
• IBM Index Class Name: ENFORCEMENT
• Doc Date: 12/4/2007
• Doc Name: Requesting Assistance
• From: Joe Dudash
• To: Dan Hernandez
• Violation No.: CV2007006
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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STATE OF COLORADO
DIVISION OF RECLAMATION, MINING AND SAFETY
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman St., Room 215
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
COLORADO
DIVISION O F
RECLAMATION
MINING
- &-
SAFETY
DATE: December 4, 2007
Bill Ritter, Jr.
Governor
TO: (Dan Hernandez Harris D. Sherman
Executive Director
Ronald W. Cattany
FROM: Joe Dudash {}? Division Director
( Natural Resource Trustee
RE: Bowie No. 2 ~i e, Permit No. C-1996-083, Bowie Resources LLC
Notice of Violation CV-2007-006, Proposed Civil Penalty Assessment,
Request for Assistance
I am requesting your assistance in the assessment of the proposed civil penalty for Notice
of Violation (NOV) CV-2007-006, issued to Bowie Resources LLC (Bowie) for the
Bowie No. 2 Mine. NOV CV-2007-006 was issued on November 16, 2007 for failure to
confine surface coal mining and reclamation operations to lands within the permit area.
Specifically, topsoil-like material and excess rock were removed from the Hubbard Creek
vent shaft construction site and transported to the City of Paonia Water Pollution Control
Facility. The topsoil-like material should have been stockpiled within the Bowie No. 2
Mine permit area and the excess rock should have been transported to the Bowie No. 1
East Mine per the approved plan.
Bowie has been constructing the Hubbard Creek vent shaft pad since early September.
The site is on USDA-Forest Service Land and about 100 feet from Hubbard Creek. The
operator encountered a lot of rock in the excavation process and was running out of room
to put all of the materials. Bowie received approval in Minor Revision No. 82 to store the
excess rock in a temporary rock storage area near the intersection of the Hubbard Creek
road and the Freeman Gulch road. However, the operator continued to encounter excess
rock. Through two minor revisions and with USDA-Forest Service concurrence, MR-83
for Bowie No. 2 and MR-119 for Bowie No. 1, Bowie received approval to place up to
3,000 cubic yards of excess rock from this project at the Bowie No. 1 East
Mine.However, it was discovered during this inspection that only some of the excess rock
had been trucked to the Bowie No. 1 Mine per the approved plan. Most of the excess rock
had been trucked off the permit area to the City of Paonia Water Pollution Control
Facility. The city was going to use the material to fill in old sewage ponds. This location
was not approved by the Division for storage of the excess rock.
It was further discovered during this inspection that atopsoil-like material had been
excavated from the Hubbard Creek vent shaft site and was being transported to the City
of Paonia Water Pollution Control Facility as well. The topsoil-like material was
somewhat dark in color, did not have an excessive amount of clay content and appeared
to be able to support plant life. There was a separate topsoil stockpile at the Hubbard
Office of
Mined Land Reclamation
Denver Grand Junction Durango
Office of
Active and Inactive Mines