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Seneca Coal Company <br />Seneca II-W Mine <br />SL-3 - Phase I Bond Release Request <br />IV. PERMIT NUMBER AND RECLAMATION BONDS <br />Permit #: C-1982-057 <br />Issued: December 31, 1985 <br />Renewals: RN-1 01/01/1991 <br />RN-2 01/01/1996 <br />RN-3 12/31/2000 <br />RN-4 08/16/2006 <br />July 2010 <br />The Division's current calculated reclamation liability is $9,078,860. Seneca Coal Company has <br />posted a self-bond (SB-004) with the CDRMS and the Routt County Board of Commissioners as <br />an additional insured in that amount. <br />V. PHASE I BOND RELEASE DOCUMENTATION <br />BACKGROUND <br />Pursuant to Rule 3.03.1, a permittee may request Phase I Bond release upon successful <br />completion of backfilling, regrading and re-establishment of drainage control in accordance with <br />the approved reclamation plan. The approved reclamation plan can be reviewed in its entirety in <br />the Seneca II-W Mine Permit Application Package (PAP) located in the Hayden Public Library, <br />Hayden, Colorado or the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, 1313 Sherman <br />Street, Denver, Colorado. <br />Phase I release will apply only to those areas where backfilling and grading are complete. <br />Backfilling and grading are considered completed upon the achievement of final post-mine <br />topography in accordance with the permit, including establishment of the approved permanent <br />drainage system. The Phase I reclamation activities have resulted in a stable landform in <br />compliance with the approved conditions in the CDRMS Permit No. C-82-057. <br />The following is a brief summary of the Phase I activities that have been completed. Backfilling <br />and grading has been on-going since 1990. The backfilling was done with dozers and scrapers <br />and in some cases with draglines. The majority of the grading work was performed with dozers <br />and scrapers. All areas affected by the surface mining operations, except as specifically <br />exempted by the CDRMS, were regraded on a timely basis to a stable configuration that <br />conforms to the approved postmining land use (livestock grazing and wildlife habitat). For the <br />most part, grading was done along contour to also minimize erosion. Any time operations were <br />conducted on steep slopes that could present safety concerns to the operators, grading was done <br />in a direction other than parallel to contour. Exhibit C, Typical Cross Sections of Backflled and <br />Graded Area, provides representative cross-sections showing the final topographic configuration. <br />A more detailed discussion of the overall mining and reclamation can be found in the Seneca II- <br />W Mine Permit Application, specifically Tab 12, Operation Plan and Tab 20, Backfilling and <br />Grading. Rill and gully surveys are conducted in the spring of each year to identify areas that <br />have experienced erosion or other signs of instability during spring runoff from snowmelt and <br />10 precipitation events. Varying degrees of rills, gullies and slumps have occurred and been <br />SL-3 -3