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®r United States Department of the Interior OFry F <br />9 <br />i OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING <br />? <br />Reclamation and Enforcement <br />Western Region Office FpK??` <br />ARCH 3. 1999 Broadway, Suite 3320 <br />Denver, CO 80202-3050 <br />MAy 10, 2011 <br />Ms. JoEllen Turner MA <br />Box 346 <br />Nucla, Colorado 81424 Uivk-,A end g few n, <br />Mining <br />Dear Ms. Turner: <br />This letter serves as the response to your February 14, 2011, request for informal review of the <br />Office of Surface Mining (OSM) Denver Field Division's (DFD) February 4, 2011, decision about <br />Ten-Day Notice (TDN) X11-140-182-001. Your request was received by this office on February <br />14, 2011. The TDN was issued to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety <br />(DRMS) as a result of your citizen's complaint alleging that prime farmland topsoil was being <br />stripped in the rain and under snow. The DFD's decision found that the DRMS had shown good <br />cause for not taking action to cause the possible violation to be corrected because the possible <br />violation did not exist in accordance with 30 CFR § 842.11(b) (4) (i). Your request for informal <br />review states your disagreement with the DFD's February 4, 2011, decision regarding the wetness <br />of the soils being handled on prime farm ground. <br />Citizen's Complaint/TDN Issuance: On January 6, 2011, you telefaxed a citizen's complaint to <br />the DFD alleging that prime farmland topsoil salvaging operations were being conducted in the <br />rain and with snow on the ground. DFD interpreted your allegation to mean that topsoil salvage <br />operations were conducted on prime farmlands during periods of excessive precipitation and that <br />the soil was saturated. DFD further reasoned that if the soil was saturated, handling it could have <br />damaged its physical and chemical properties and operations would not have minimized erosion, <br />contamination and/or compaction. Consequently, a TDN was issued to the DRMS on January 12, <br />2011, based on your complaint of improper soil stripping practices under wet conditions, and <br />included a potential violation of Rules 4.06.2 and 4.06.3 (topsoil removal and storage regulations). <br />State TDN Response: On January 20, 2011, the DRMS responded to the January 6, 2011, TDN <br />from the DFD. DRMS explained that the Division conducted a partial inspection of the New <br />Horizon Mine on January 14, 2011, and attached a copy of the report to its response. DRMS <br />continued that during the inspection the Chief Engineer for Western Fuels-Colorado, LLC (WFC) <br />provided precipitation records for the month of December 2010. Additionally, by letter dated <br />January 17, 2011, WFC provided DRMS with a tabulation of temperature and precipitation data <br />from December 1, 2010, through January 13, 2011, and included photos of topsoil salvage that <br />occurred on December 28, 2010. Based on this climatic data and the topsoil salvaging photos, <br />DRMS found that there is no evidence of saturated soil conditions and the alleged violations do <br />not exist. As a result, DRMS determined that WFC is in compliance with its permit and Rules <br />4.06.2 and 4.06.3.