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Location of Area Under Consideration for Termination of Jurisdiction
<br />The Grassy Gap Mine is located approximately 7 miles southeast of Hayden, Colorado and 4.5 miles west
<br />of Routt County Road 27 (Twentymile Road) on Grassy Creek. The permit area lies entirely within Routt
<br />County, Colorado, in Sections 20, 21, 28, 29, and 31, of TSN, R87W of the 6th PM.
<br />Permit Revocation and Bond Forfeiture
<br />The Grassy Gap Mine is a permit revocation/bond forfeiture site. The Grassy Gap Mine permit expired on
<br />April 23, 1990. Rockcastle Coal Company did not apply for renewal of the permit. On May 24, 1990, the
<br />Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board (CMLRB) recommended that the renewal of the Grassy Gap
<br />Mine permit be denied. The Division and RCC entered into a Settlement Agreement on June 26, 1990.
<br />Permit revocation and bond forfeiture proceedings were initiated by the Division on August 23, 1990. Bond
<br />forfeiture was completed on June 23, 1993, with the Division obtaining $35,000. In accordance with the
<br />June 26, 1990 Settlement Agreement, $10,000 of the $35,000 were ear-marked specifically for weed
<br />control. After weed control was conducted in 1994, approximately $4,759, representing the unused portion
<br />of $10,000 weed control money, was returned to RCC in January 1995, with the Division retaining $25,000.
<br />All monies associated with the forfeited bond have now been used. Rockcastle Coal Company is not due
<br />any further monetary consideration as a result of this TOJ process.
<br />IT. Background and History of the Grassy Gap Mine
<br />Initial Permitting History
<br />The Grassy Gap Mine was a surface coal mine in existence prior to the establishment of the Colorado
<br />permanent program in December 1980. It was previously permitted as the Grassy Creek Coal Mine No.I to.
<br />Rockcastle Company (not the same name as Rockcastle Coal Company) under State interim program permit
<br />No. 78-45, issued July 10, 1978. In accordance with the Colorado Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation
<br />Act, Rockcastle Coal Company applied for a permanent program Mining and Reclamation permit with the
<br />Mined Land Reclamation Division in February 1981. Five pits (Pits 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6) had all been mined
<br />prior to the issuance of the new mining and reclamation permit, with four (Pits 1, 2, 3, and 5) having been
<br />backfilled by that time. A fifth pit, Pit 6, was in the process of being backfilled at that time, and coal was
<br />being produced from a sixth pit, Pit 4.
<br />A decision to conditionally approve a permanent program permit to RCC was proposed on September 19,
<br />1984. In response to the Division's proposed permit stipulations, RCC requested a hearing with the Mined
<br />Land Reclamation Board. The Board hearing was held December 14, 1984. At the hearing, the required
<br />reclamation bond was determined to be $446,680.00. The new permanent program permit was
<br />subsequently issued by the Division on April 23, 1985.
<br />Pre-mining land use was rangeland. The approved post-mining land use is rangeland. The reference area, a
<br />Sagebrush community, was approved for vegetative reclamation success comparison.
<br />At the time the permit was issued, the surface landowner (Bogle Farms), upond which the main haul/access
<br />roads were situated, requested that these roads be retained as permanent roads. The Division approved the
<br />main access road and the pit haul roads to remain post-mining.
<br />Grassy Gap TOJ 6/5/2009
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