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STATE OF COLORADO <br />DIVISION OF RECLAMATION, MINING AND SAFETY <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />1313 Sherman St., Room 215 <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Phone: (303) 866-3567 <br />FAX: (303) 832-8106 <br />16 December 2009 <br />Ms. Jennifer Sekulski-Barton <br />Colowyo Coal Company, LP <br />5731 State Highway 13 <br />Meeker, CO 81641 <br />Re: Colowyo Mine C-1981-019 <br />2008 Annual Reclamation Report Review <br />Dear Ms. Sekulski-Barton: <br />COLORADO <br />D I V IS I ON OF <br />RECLAMATION <br />MINING <br />SAFETY <br />Bill Ritter, Jr. <br />Governor <br />Harris D. Sherman <br />Executive Director <br />Ronald W. Cattany <br />Division Director <br />Natural Resource Trustee <br />The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (Division) has received the <br />Colowyo Coal Company, LP (Colowyo) 2008 Annual Reclamation Report (ARR). <br />Thank you for your timely submittal of this report. The Division has completed its <br />review of this report and has the following comments and questions. <br />1. For the last several years (dating back to the late 1990's) there have been <br />discrepancies in the acreage numbers reported on the Annual Reclamation Report <br />Form. A large amount of time was spent by both the Division and Colowyo in an <br />attempt to fix these discrepancies. It was agreed upon in 2008 that Colowyo <br />would review all of their disturbed, backfilled and regraded, topsoiled, reseeded <br />and bond released acres to come up with accurate numbers for these categories. It <br />was understood that these numbers may not match those in the previous reports <br />but that they would be based on the latest and most accurate information <br />available. These new numbers are now consistent within the report. The attached <br />chart (attachment A) shows the difference from the 2007 ending acreages and the <br />2008 beginning acreages (which should be identical). Colowyo will use the <br />numbers as reported in the 2008 ARR for all day forward reporting. <br />2. Colowyo has reported that 1,674.44 acres have been backfilled and graded and <br />1,668.74 acres have been topsoiled (a difference of 5.7 acres). These acreage <br />figures take into account the 42.2 acres that were regarded in the West Pit in 2007 <br />that have not had the topsoil replaced. These figures also take into account the <br />36.5 acres that were redisturbed in the Section 16 Pit area as a part of the South <br />Taylor Pit operations. These 36.5 acres were previously regraded, topsoiled and <br />reseeded and Colowyo has stripped the topsoil and redisturbed the areas. A more <br />detailed presentation of the redisturbed areas is shown on Exhibit 5A. <br />Office <br />Office of of <br />Mined Land Reclamation Denver • Grand Junction • Durango Active and Inactive Mines