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for the East Wadge Pit area remains to be implemented. Only minor improvements and maintenance <br />related activities are ongoing at all other areas of the site. <br />The permanent program mining permit was issued on September 23, 1981. Five successive permit <br />renewals have since been approved. Reclamation bonds held for the existing permit and previous <br />permit numbers (designated as Pre-Law) are given in the following table. Exhibit D, Chronology of <br />Bonding in the bond release application shows the overall areas covered by the sequence of bonds. <br />Permit Number Bond Number Bond Amount Bond Company <br />75-54 C/A 9264191 $1,355,000.00 National Fire Insurance <br />Company of Hartford <br />C-80-005 9264508 $5,575,756.00 National Fire Insurance <br />Company of Hartford <br />C-80-005 309559 $252,733.00 Seaboard Sure Company <br />Bond Held $7,183,489.00 <br />The total permit area at the Seneca II Mine encompasses 3,457 acres of which the Pre-Law area <br />comprises 326.5 acres. Seneca Coal Company requested release of bond liability on 259.1 reclaimed <br />acres of its total 326.5 acres of disturbance in the Pre-Law area. Not included by SCC in this SL-02 <br />bond release application are the 67.4 acres associated with the Old Wolf Creek Pit area. <br />There has been one previous bond release at the Seneca II Mine (SL-01 application received in 2006). <br />The DRMS's decision to approve Bond Release Application No. 1 (SL-01) became final on February <br />22, 2007. SCC was released from Phase I liability for backfilling, grading, and drainage reestablishment <br />on 2,054.5 acres of the Seneca II Mine site and the DRMS released $3,679,464.00. <br />An application for release of full bond liability on 259.1 acres of Pre-Law area was received by the <br />DRMS on June 28, 2007. The Pre-Law area bond release application was deemed complete on August <br />15, 2007, after the DRMS received proof of publication of the applicant's public notice. Seneca Coal <br />Company published notice of the bond release application in Steamboat Pilot once weekly for four <br />consecutive weeks, beginning July 01, 2007. Seneca Coal Company also notified land owners within <br />and adjacent to the mine permit area, and other interested parties of the application for bond release, as <br />required by Rule 3.03.2(1). No comments, written objections, or requests for an informal conference <br />regarding the bond release application were received by the DRMS. <br />The DRMS scheduled and conducted a bond release inspection on September 12, 2007. Mike Boulay <br />of the DRMS, Jay James of JEC Inc., and Mr. Scott Belden of Peabody Energy Environmental Services <br />West attended the inspection. None of the land owners of record attended the inspection; however, all <br />land owners were notified of the inspection via certified mail. <br />Adequacy questions and concerns raised by the DRMS during the inspection are detailed in the DRMS <br />inspection report dated September 21, 2007 and are summarized below in Section III of this document. <br />There were no separate adequacy correspondence letters sent to Seneca Coal Company. <br />4