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Reclamation was substantially funded by proceeds of the Mid Continent Resources <br /> bankruptcy proceeding. The bankruptcy plan provided funds for reclamation of the site; <br /> however, funds were available only as liquidation of the company assets was completed. <br /> As a result, funding for reclamation work was limited, and only became available on a <br /> periodic basis. Therefore, areas that were ranked high on the reclamation priority list <br /> were not always reclaimed in the order of priority because adequate funding may not <br /> have been available to complete the job. For this reason, some sites with a lesser priority, <br /> but with a lesser-estimated cost, were reclaimed before areas with a higher priority. <br /> In general, land ownership was not a factor in determining when or how an individual <br /> area or facility would be reclaimed. The only time that land ownership became a factor <br /> was in determining timing of reclamation of a portion of the privately held property. At <br /> one point during the reclamation process, the bankruptcy trustee objected to a proposed <br /> reclamation project, and subsequently withheld bankruptcy funds earmarked for <br /> reclamation. As a result of a 1997 suit filed in District court, reclamation work was <br /> substantially stopped for one construction season. As part of the settlement of the suit, a <br /> schedule for completing reclamation of the privately held property was negotiated. <br /> DRMS first began work at Coal Basin in the fall of 1994 when a contractor was hired to <br /> maintain drainage ditches at the site in anticipation of spring runoff. Some amount of <br /> stormwater management was also accomplished at various mine entry areas and at other <br /> site facilities. Reclamation construction began in earnest during the summer of 1995, and <br /> was substantially completed by the end of 2001. <br /> Since the completion of the 2001 construction season, only two reclamation projects were <br /> undertaken at Coal Basin; one funded by the Inactive Mines Program at a pre-law coal <br /> refuse pile located near Mine 5, and one funded by a Non-Point Source grant using <br /> forfeited bond money as a match. Excepting these projects, construction at the site <br /> between 2002 and 2006 has consisted of maintenance activities. <br /> Completed Reclamation Proiects <br /> A brief description of the various reclamation projects is provided below. These brief <br /> descriptions provide an overview of the scope of each project in the context of <br /> accomplishing reclamation of the entire site. <br /> 1995 <br /> Springy Maintenance. Snowmelt runoff was extreme in the late spring of 1995. As a <br /> result of both the runoff sediment volume and work previously completed by Mid <br /> Continent Resources, the Dutch Creek Flume began to fail during the runoff. A <br /> 3 <br />