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I. PROCEDURES AND SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW PROCESS <br />In SL -2, Seneca Coal Company applied for a Phase I bond release of 515.8 of the total disturbed <br />acres under the Colorado Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act, for reclaimed areas within <br />the reclaimed North Pit, South Pit, Neck Pit, and adjacent ancillary support areas at the Yoast <br />Mine. The mine is located in Routt County, Colorado, on lands included within: <br />Township 6 North, Range 87 West; Portions of Sections 28, 29 and 32; and <br />Township 5 North, Range 87 West; All of Section 17; Portions of Sections 5, 8, 16, 18, 19, 20, <br />29, and 30. <br />The Yoast Mine plan area is located in northwest Colorado approximately 8.5 miles southeast <br />of the town of Hayden, and is positioned between three existing coal- mining operations. The <br />Yoast Mine plan area is approximately 4 miles southwest of the Seneca I1 Mine, 3.5 miles east <br />of the Seneca II -W mine, and one mile west of the reclaimed Grassy Gap Mine. The mining <br />area is located between Sage Creek and Grassy Creek and is found on USGS 7.5 Minute <br />Quadrangle Maps of Dunckley and Mount Harris. <br />The Yoast Mine is a surface operation that primarily used area strip techniques and <br />secondarily auger and highwall miner techniques to recover coal from the Wadge and Wolf <br />Creek seams. Major site features are shown on the attached Figure 1 - Yoast Mine Site Area <br />Map. Mining activities started in 1995 and occurred in three adjacent areas, referred to as the <br />North and South Pit areas, and a narrow Neck Pit, which ran between the two larger pit areas. <br />During the first five -year permit term, mining was developed in the North Pit in Section 17 of <br />Township 5 North, Range 87 West. Mining during the second and third terms occurred in <br />Sections 17, 19, 20, 29, and 30, all in T5N R87W. <br />All mining operations have been completed at the Yoast Mine. Coal production at the mine <br />ceased in February 2006. Mine pit areas have been backfilled and graded, and the graded <br />areas have been topsoiled, seeded, and planted. Areas remaining to be backfilled and graded <br />include various temporary light use roads, a number of remaining topsoil pile locations, and <br />an area impacted by a landslide in the lower Pond 12 watershed, in the northwest corner of the <br />South Pit area. Limited reclamation and maintenance activities will be ongoing at the Yoast <br />Mine. <br />The final reclamation plan for Yoast Mine includes retention of numerous permanent facilities <br />including roads and culverts, postmine drainage channels, impoundments (two stock ponds <br />and four sediment ponds), and an electrical substation and power line. Numerous permanent <br />channels were included in the SL -2 release request, as was the electric power line. <br />Although a number of roads and ponds have been proposed and /or approved for permanent <br />retention for the postmining land use at Yoast, none of the road or pond facilities were <br />included in the SL -2 release request. The primary access to the Yoast mine pit area is via the <br />mine entrance road (former Haul Road "A "), which extends from Routt County Road No. 27, <br />south approximately 3 miles to the mining area. The entrance road has been approved as <br />3 <br />