2010-10-04_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981008

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2009. The TR-57 application identified prime farmland soils within portions of the New Horizon permit area, revised soil handling practices to conform with prime farmland requirements, and revised the soil salvage and replacement plans to ensure compliance and achievement of reclamation plan objectives. On November 13, 2007, WFC submitted an application for renewal of the permit (RN-05). The Division called the application complete on November 27, 2007, and issued the Preliminary Adequacy Review on January 25, 2008. Due to the concurrent determination that the permit area included prime farmlands, issuance of RN-05 was delayed pending the approval of TR-57 (see preceding paragraph). The Division issued a proposed decision to approve the renewal with Stipulation Nos. 16 and 17 on August 25, 2009. Following the 30-day public comment period, RN-05 was issued on October 8, 2009, with Stipulation Nos. 16 and 17 attached. . _X X-I i°yisioli IIU. 6 "UXXuX ary Permit Revision No. 6 (PR-6) was submitted in response to Stipulation Nos. 16 and 17 (attached to Permit Renewal No. 5) on November 12, 2009. The Division called the application complete for purposes of filing on November 23, 2009, and the public notice appeared in the San Miguel Basin Forum once per week for five consecutive weeks on December 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31, 2009. The 30-day public comment period commenced on the last day of publication and came to a close on February 1, 2010. The PR-6 application addressed land use designations, revegetation plans and standards, prime farmland standards, sediment control, and post-mining topography. WFC also proposed some changes to the topsoil salvage and replacement plans approved in TR-57 for the remaining mining and reclamation operations. The majority of the proposed changes were directed at the land parcels west of 2700 Road owned by the Morgan, Benson, and Lloyd families and a parcel owned by WFC. These land parcels are shown on Figure 2. Public Comments During the public comment period, the Division received numerous letters of objection to PR-6. Petitions with multiple signatures were also received. The letters and signatures were from landowners within the permit boundary (Morgan, Benson, Lloyd, and Richards) and from members of the community. See Attachment A for a list of the names and dates of letters received during the public comment periods. Copies of all letters from the public during the published comment periods were forwarded to WFC. A number of objections were expressed in the letters. The majority of concerns were directed at WFC's proposal to change the post-mining land use on certain parcels from irrigated lands to dryland pasture. On the Benson West, Lloyd and WFC parcels of land, WFC originally proposed to change the post mining land use from irrigated pasture to dryland pasture. On the Morgan prime farmland property, WFC proposed to return 60.1 acres to irrigated alfalfa hay cropland and the remaining 47.9 acres to "potential cropland". Potential cropland areas were lands where WFC did not have sufficient shares of water available to irrigate reclaimed areas throughout the liability period; WFC proposed to plant those areas with a dryland pasture seed 6