_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981017 (228)

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i o�PP��ENT OF l y�ym A_ United States Department of the Interior N O � a OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING CH 3 Reclamation and Enforcement 1999 Broadway,Suite 3320 IN REPLY REFER TO Denver,Colorado 80202-5733 RECElVr rf April 28, 1998 a�r Mr. Michael Mechau Dvision of Unerais&Geol;Ty 3542 Front St. Palisade, CO 81526 Dear Mr. Mechau: In accordance with the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act(SMCRA) and implementing regulations at 30 CFR 842.12, this letter serves as the Office of Surface Mining's (OSM) initial response to your written concerns. OSM has provided you letters dated March 6 and April 2, 1998, which document the receipt and processing of your concerns. Your initial concerns received by OSM on March 2 and your subsequent concerns received on March 27 were both transmitted to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Division of Minerals and Geology(DMG). DMG provided OSM a response to your initial concerns dated March 30, 1998. The DMG response is enclosed for your information. The January 5, 1998, memo from DMG to OSM referred to in DMG's response,which provided OSM an update on this matter, is also enclosed. OSM and the United States Department of the Interior, Regional Solicitor's Office, reviewed the DMG response to your initial concerns. Following are OSM's findings regarding DMG's response and OSM's response to your concerns directed to it. As discussed with you, OSM was hoping to provide one response addressing both your letters noted above. Due to lengthy review of your subsequent concerns at the State of Colorado, Attorney General's Office, OSM will provide you a separate letter addressing these concerns once we have received and reviewed DMG's response. OSM finds that DMG's March 30, 1998,response,which includes by reference the January 5, 1998, memo to OSM, adequately addresses your initial concern which stated" CITIZEN COMPLAINT alleging the failure of the State of Colorado to ensure complete reclamation of Mid-Continent Resources' mined lands in Coal Basin." Pages 2 and 3 of the January 5 memo adequately document to date the administrative, enforcement, and civil actions brought by DMG against Mid-Continent Resources and the agents of Mid-Continent Resources. Reclamation funds are being released through a 1994 bankruptcy court confirmed liquidation plan, and ongoing reclamation accomplished with those funds at Coal Basin is also adequately documented in the January 5 memo. Both the January 5 memo and DMG's March 30 response state"The Court of Appeals' ruling left open the possibility of the Division pursuing funds against the agents of MCR should funds through the liquidation plan prove insufficient to conduct necessary reclamation."