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I. PROCEDURES AND SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW PROCESS <br />Overview and Operational HistorX <br />Seneca Coal Company LLC (SCC) applied for a Phase II bond release at the Seneca II Mine. The <br />application requested Phase 11 release for 1,793.5 acres of reclaimed land within the mine permit <br />boundary, under the provisions of the Colorado Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act. The mine <br />area is located in Routt County, Colorado, on lands included within: <br />T5N, R87W; All of Sections 1, 2 and 12; Portions of Sections 3, 11 and 13 <br />T6N, R87W; Portions of Sections 27, 34, 35 and 36 <br />T5N, R86W; Portions of Sections 6 and 7. <br />The Seneca II Mine is located in northwest Colorado, approximately nine miles southeast of Hayden <br />in Routt County. The Seneca II Mine lies 7 miles east of the Seneca II-W Mine; Permit No. C-82- <br />057, and 4 miles east of the Yoast Mine, Permit No. C-94-082. The mining area can be found on the <br />Milner Quadrangle 7.5 Minute Series Map. Elevations at the mine site range from 6,600 feet to 8,100 <br />feet above mean sea level. <br />Mining started in 1972 and coal removal continued through August, 1999. During active mining <br />operations, the coal from the Seneca II Mine was hauled over county and private roadways by a <br />private hauler to the Hayden Station Power Plant operated by Public Service of Colorado. <br />The Seneca II Mine is a surface operation that used area strip techniques and auger mining. Area <br />strip mining techniques used at the mine include vegetation removal, topsoil stripping, fragmentation <br />and removal of overburden, fragmentation and removal of coal, spoils grading, topsoil replacement, <br />and revegetation. Surface disturbance at the site included surface mining pits, reclaimed auger <br />mining areas, and mine- related structures and facilities. Mining occurred in two pits, the Wadge and <br />Wolf Creek. The Wadge pit mined the Wadge coal seam to depths of 100 feet. The Wolf Creek pit <br />recovered the Wolf Creek seam to depths of 140 feet. Three auger areas were mined at the Seneca II <br />Mine. These areas are designated as Area B, D, and E and are shown on Exhibit 12-1A of the permit <br />application package (PAP). <br />The final area to be mined was the Wadge East Area pit. Coal removal was completed at this <br />location in August, 1999. The 650 dragline was moved from the Seneca II Mine to the Yoast Mine in <br />the fall of 1996. Prior to the cessation of mining production rates were approximately 600,000 tons <br />per year. <br />Mining began at Seneca II prior to implementation of Colorado's permanent regulatory program, and <br />as a result, affected lands within the permit area fall within three regulatory categories, "pre-law", <br />"interim program", and "permanent program". Bond release criteria differ among the three <br />categories. Pre-law areas were mined prior to passage of the Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act <br />and the Federal interim rules which took effect on May 5, 1978. Permit 75-54 was issued for these <br />lands under the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Act of 1976. Lands where coal was removed