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MAY 15 2012 <br />Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety Division Reclamation, <br />Mining & Safety . <br />This is not a Citizens complaint, this is an objection to the new permit being approved. <br />We are objecting to the new permit being issued for New Horizon North. We feel that it should <br />not be issued -when they are in non - compliance with -prior permits. <br />New Horizon North is also in non -compliance. The Rules and Regulations and the Act which <br />was signed into law in 1977 requires that all information is factual and that all information meet <br />the requirements of all the rules and regulations and the Act. New Horizon North does not <br />Western Fuels has used ficticious descriptions of land uses and ficticious rules and regulations to <br />back their information. <br />There is NO such thing as improved pasturelands or well managed pasturelands as part of rule <br />1.04. If it was harvested, it is cropland. The Garveys as well as others has historically irrigated <br />and cropped the lands being mined Such as James Johnson and Lloyds as well as others that <br />had been historically irrigated and cropped for over 85 years, all documented. Therefore, they are <br />croplands and not pasturelands. All land uses must be determined based on what the land use <br />was 10 years prior to being purchased or leased. The land use is not the vegetation cover, but <br />what the land was used for. All of these things that they are trying to do in New Horizon North <br />is the very same thing that has gotten the Morgans where we are today. The rules and regulations <br />need to be followed. It does not matter if the lands were purchased by Western Fuels, they must <br />be returned to as good as or better and to the landuses they were prior to mining. Pr -06 allows <br />them to dry up historically irrigated and cropped lands, this is illegal. Pr -06 allows them to <br />remove the water from the permit area just prior to mining and then report to you that it is <br />dryland because they do not have the water to irrigate with. This is illegal and misusing the rules <br />and regulations for what they were put into law for. It does not matter if it is a purchase or a <br />lease. <br />If it was irrigated, it needs to be returned to irrigated. They have not completed the permit they <br />are operating on even today to full compliance. Pr -06 is under appeal and has not even gotten <br />into court. The rules and regulations are being broken even present day. There are many non- <br />compliance issues that will arise even from past permitting. The Morgan property is not being <br />returned to the condition it was in the natural existence prior mining. They are turning the layers <br />of soil upside down. It's suppose to be returned like it was, not the spoil on top of the bench one. <br />Lance Wade wrote a letter to the State and sent to OSM that states the spoil will be put into the <br />bottom of the pit, then the rocky bench one and then the nicer bench one. This was not done and <br />is not being. done and the spoil is being hauled in again today. The Depths that you keep <br />indicating are MAN made decisions and. depths. and not what the rules and regulations. state. It <br />must conform to how it was in the natural existence and the black nasty rocky spoil that they are <br />hauling close the surface was down about 85 feet where the coal was. It was the layer right on <br />top of the coal seam. And now it is being brought to the surface cutting down our bench one. <br />Not what the rules state and not what Lance Wade stated. Lance knew how it was suppose to be <br />returned and that is what he stated and does just the opposite. PR -06 is under appeal and is not <br />legal to begin with. <br />