Laserfiche WebLink
INTRODUCTION <br />This document is the decision package prepared by the Colorado Division of Reclamation, <br />Mining, and Safety (the "Division") for Permit Revision No. 3(PR-03) for the New Elk Mine. <br />This document includes: <br />• a summary which includes a history of the review of the permit revision application; <br />• a description of the environment affected by the operation and a description of the mining <br />and reclamation plan; and <br />• the written findings of compliance the Division has made as required by the Colorado <br />Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act. Detailed information concerning the findings of <br />compliance can be found in the Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation <br />Board for Coal Mining. <br />The Division received an application for a permit revision (PR-03) to the New Elk Mine permit <br />(#C-81-012) to add a coal loadout along an existing railroad siding located in Jansen, a small <br />community immediately west of Trinidad, Colorado. New Elk Coal Company LLC (NECC) <br />submitted the application, and NECC will operate the coal loadout. The loadout, referred to in <br />this document as the "Jansen Loadout", is a separate permit area of about 10.5 acres on <br />private lands within Las Animas County, Colorado. Current plans are for the loadout to be <br />temporary, used for a period of two or three years, until a railroad spur can be re-established <br />from the loadout location to the New Elk Mine site, some 25 miles west of the loadout. <br />Approval of Permit Revision No. 3 will result in two separate permit areas as described below. <br />The Jansen Loadout is generally located in the SE1/4 Section 22 and part of the NW1/4, <br />SW1/3 of Section 23, T33S R64W of the 6th P.M. in Las Animas County. The specific legal <br />description of the lands included within the permit area is a metes and bounds description, <br />which is included in Exhibit 40 of the permit application. The area described for the loadout is <br />shown on the USGS 7.5 minute Quadrangle map of Trinidad West. <br />An approximate of the location of the New Elk Mine site permit area, assuming the sections <br />are partially or fully projected in T33S R68W, is as follows: T33S R68W, Portions of Sections <br />13, 14, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 28. The lands within the permit area at the mine site are shown on <br />the USGS 7.5 minute Quadrangle maps of Vigil, Tercio and Stonewall. <br />PROPOSED DECISION <br />The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety proposes to approve Permit <br />Revision No. 3, Jansen Loadout. The application was submitted by New Elk Coal Company <br />for the New Elk Mine. This decision is based on a finding that the operation will comply with all <br />requirements of the Colorado State Program as found in the Colorado Surface Coal Mining <br />Reclamation Act, C.R.S. 34-33-101, et seq., and the Regulations promulgated pursuant to the <br />Act. If no request for a formal hearing is made within thirty (30) days of the first publication of