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Introduction <br />This document is the Permit Revision No. 12 (PR-12) proposed decision package prepared by the <br />Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (Division) for the Bowie No. 2 Mine. Through <br />Permit Revision No. 12, Bowie Resources LLC (BRL) is proposing to revise its approved B-seam mine <br />plan by terminating mining to the north and adding a new mining district to the west by incorporating a <br />portion of the Bowie No. 1 permit area into the Bowie No. 2 permit area. This document includes: 1) the <br />proposed decision to Approve the permit renewal application; 2) a summary which includes a history of <br />the review of the permit revision application, a description of the environment affected by the operation <br />and a description of the mining and reclamation plan; and 3) the written findings of compliance the <br />Division has made as required by the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act. <br />Detailed information concerning the review process is on file at the Division offices; legal requirements <br />can be found in the Act and Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board for Coal <br />Mining. All rules referenced in this document are contained within the Regulations. Detailed <br />information about the proposed mining and reclamation operation can be found in the permit application <br />on file (File No. C-1996-083) in the public record maintained by the Division, located in Room 215, <br />Centennial Building, 1313 Sherman Street, Denver, Colorado 80203, telephone (303) 866-3567. Copies <br />of the permit revision application are also available for inspection at the Paonia Public Library in Paonia, <br />Colorado. <br />The mine permit area is located on Federal and Private lands within Delta County, Colorado. BRL is both <br />the applicant and operator of the Bowie No. 2 Mine, as well as the Bowie No. 1 Mine. The coal to be <br />mined is privately and federally owned, as are the surface lands to be disturbed by mining. The <br />management of the federal surface land is through the USDA-Forest Service while management of the <br />federal coal is through the Bureau of Land Management. Currently, access to the federal coal at the <br />Bowie No. 2 Mine is through Federal Coal Lease COC-61209. <br />Originally, in accordance with direction provided by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), the Division <br />and the OSM considered the Bowie No. 2 Mine to be a private mine, for the purposes of permit and <br />inspection regulation. However, with approval of Technical Revision No. 16, the Bowie No. 2 Mine <br />became a federal mine. Through that revision, BRL was granted permission to conduct mining in a <br />limited area of the Iron Point Tract Federal Lease. <br />Due to difficult mining conditions in the northern part of the Bowie No. 2 Mine permit area, BRL is <br />proposing in PR-12 to curtail mining to the north and expand mining to the west of their current permit <br />area. BRL intends to transfer about 2,203 acres of their Bowie No. 1 Mine permit area into their Bowie <br />No. 2 Mine permit area. <br />Portions of federal coal leases C-37210, C-27442 and D-036955, originally assigned to the Bowie No. 1 <br />Mine, will be accessed underground from the Bowie No. 2 Mine to the east. BRL has applied for a lease <br />modification to lease D-036955 as well, but the approval is still pending so it is not part of the PR-12 <br />approval. All Bowie No. 1 Mine baseline information, hydrology and subsidence monitoring and liability <br />in the transferred permit area will remain the responsibility of BRL but through the Bowie No. 2 Mine <br />permit. <br />The Bowie No. 2 Mine is located about five (5) miles northeast of Paonia, Colorado, adjacent to State <br />Highway 133 and near the old Bowie townsite. The current permit area includes 5945 surface acres, of <br />which 2692 surface acres are privately owned and 3253 surface acres are federally owned. With the <br />approval of Permit Revision No. 12, the permit area will increase in size by 2203 acres, 1944.6 acres of <br />which are private and 258.4 acres of which are federal. The affected area will increase by 1554.4 acres.