2008-01-10_REVISION - C1981008 (2)

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• January 4, 2008 TO Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety 1313 Sherman Streetw Room 215 Denver, Colorado 80203 Re: Renewal of Exi ' Permits. Also, Technical Revision of the New Horizon Mine Permit No. -8h-008. This Technical Revision is to Section 2.05.4(2)e. This is by Western Fuels-Colorado (WFC) in Nucla, Co. Dear Sirs: 1 am writing this lettdr as a formal protest to the application for renewal of existing permits as well as to the application for a Technical Revision to the New Horizon Mine Permit No. C-81-008. This Technical Revision covers the change in Success Standards in irrigated Pasture from a standard to 'a reference area. I have worked for Western Fuels doing their reclamation for 13 years until last year. I have lived and farmed in Nucla for the most part of 50 years. All of the fields that you see around the mine as well as NHI, the old mine sight, I did. NHl and NH2 were put back into fields, farmed, and irrigated by me. There are many truths here that are not being spoken or presented to you as fact W Western Fuels. The area that is being mined and about to be mined affects me greatly, as I have a lot of it leased for the farming, besides being involved in the ownership. Let's start at the beginning. When I did the reclamation on the mine, I disked, rock raked, rock picked, leveled(very Critical), and cultipacked these grounds to the best possible. These ground were much nicer than they were before the mine began their mining process. Everyone around here was very pleased. It is not the mines fault (for the most part) nor was it mine that production was not made. In this area production is the greatest the 2, third, fourth years. As everything, as the grasses alfalfa, etc. gets up in the years, production seems to take a downhill dive. When the 10 year mark approaches, of course, production will be considerably less than it was the first six years. This is the fault of regulations they have to abide by which should be adjusted to meet the farming practices in this area. We would like to see the mine get their bond release just as soon as they have done everything possible to meet the requirements and production is met the first few years. 10 years is unheard of in the farming profession. If the mine must hold the property for a full 10 years and they continue to irrigate, fertilize, and do everything possible like a real farmer, then that land should be returned to it's owners. Why do you make them produce 10 years away? We put up approximately 1000 ton or better a year and our best production is the first 6 years. Then we either re-plow and completely redo our fields or we make adjustments that the coal mine is not allowed to do. I guarantee the fields I did were put back as good or better than any other farmer in this area. To now use a reference area to get bond release for those areas would not even be necessary if you had counted the production rates from years ago. It is only right to just return those areas back to the farmers because everything has