2010-08-16_REVISION - C1981008 (5)

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C lR9/-oo8 lam. R: (o Sandra L. Brown Senior Environmental Protection Specialist VODivision of reclamation, Mining and safety LU1D 1313sherman street, room 215u? 16 Denver, co 80203 1-6 sau" Respectfully Sandra Brown, Q.. My name is Clifford Chiles, I have worked for the New Horizon mine for 17 years and have lived in the area all my life 52 years. My grand parents Carl and Sylvia Benson once had some of the land that has been mined and reclaimed and it produces as much or more than it ever did. The mine is doing a good job of reclaiming the land, as good as it was or better in most cases. You can look and see the proof is there! Look at what we have reclaimed. There is more farmable lands than there was before the soil may be thinner in some places but there is soil where there wasn't any before. There was shelf rock that caught the water when you irrigated, then when the rock came close to the surface it made poor crops or a bog. The Morgan Property does have the most productive land in comparison to the other farms that have been mined. But it was not all prime farm land it had its shelf rock, bogs and thin soil too. And when the mine is through reclaiming it there will be more farmable land than there was. This should give them more production. I also farm my parents land just a few miles from the mine. I wish there was coal under all of it. So it would be mined. We have prime farm land, shelf rock, rocks and bogs and uneven ground. It would be nice to farm land that had soil on all of it with out all the shelf rock and uneven grades. I would like to urge you to approve PR06 so that the mine can continue to mining and reclamation, on the Morgan property and on other properties that are projected. There are many workers at the mine who need the jobs the mine provides and the economy in this area will go down even more with out the mine. The mine does a lot to help the local area. Sincerely, Clifford Chiles