1983-09-01_PERMIT FILE - C1981017

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United States Fores; Paonia Ranger District Department of Service Paonia, Colorado 81428 Agriculture (303) 527-4131 Fea to 2820 June 28, 1983 United States Department of the Interior Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Brooks Tower, 1020 15th Street Denver, CO 80202 L ATTN: Bennett Young Dear Mr. Young: My staff has reviewed the Coal Basin Mine Permit Application prepared by Mid-Continent Resources, Inc. I find that project-related surface activities on lands within the Paonia District are acceptable, and therefore I concur with issuance of a mining permit for the project. I wish to clarify certain points in the application, however, so that future misunderstandings can be avoided: (1) The application shows very little specific activity involving surface activities on the west side of Huntsman Ridge, which is the area that involves the Paonia District. To the best of my knowledge, this activity is limited to a light use road to the south of Huntsman Mountain. See Map II-B-5 (Coal Basin Road System) . In a Decision Notice dated January 8, 1980, I approved reopening this road, including construction of 0.58 miles of new road so that adequate environmental data could be collected to evaluate the December 14, 1978 Exploration Plan. As the applica- tion shows no additional roading beyond that shown on Map II-B-5, my concurrence does not apply to additional roads that Mid-Continent may desire in the future. I fully understand that Mid-Continent may eventually need to drill exploration holes on the west side of Huntsman Ridge, but since access to any such drill sites is not specifically proposed in the application, it will have to be dealt with at a later time. The same holds if road access is sought to service subsidence monitoring stations, although I understand that this monitoring will for the most part be done by helicopter. (2) Regarding the subsidence-related discussion on Vol . 7, Chapter IV, page 28.1 (Stipulation 32) , my position on this was stated in a September 15, 1982, letter to Mr. George Wear of Mid-Continent Resources. I continue to believe that the angle of draw should be used to determine how close mining can get to the lease boundary until Mid-Continent establishes to OSM's and MLRD's satisfaction that mining may be conducted closer without jeopardizing the integrity of the ground surface. S e FS-6200-11(8-80)