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March 24, 1998 T <br /> Richard Seibel <br /> Regional Director <br /> Office of Surface Mining <br /> 1999 Broadway, Suite 3320 <br /> Denver, CO 80202-5733 <br /> Re: CITIZEN COMPLAINT - ALLEGING IMPROPER ASSUMPTION BY <br /> THE COLORADO DIVISION OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGY OF COSTS <br /> OF RECLAIMING MID-CONTINENT RESOURCES' COAL BASIN MINES <br /> TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE PUBLIC INTEREST AND IN <br /> VIOLATION OF THE LAW <br /> Mr. Seibel: <br /> The Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) , in its <br /> accounting of the reclamation costs of Mid-Continent Resources ' <br /> (MCR' s) Coal Basin mines, has failed to include the cost to the <br /> State of project management and auxiliary expenses, even though <br /> project management is integral to reclamation. <br /> Considering the initial failure of DMG (and OSM) to require MCR <br /> to post an adequate reclamation bond, and considering MCR's <br /> bankruptcy and the lack of funds, we recognize that it was <br /> prudent and necessary for DMG to defray project management costs <br /> provided that every effort is made to hold MCR and its principal <br /> officers responsible for repayment. But DMG has given no <br /> indication that it will attempt to recoup these sums from MCR's <br /> principal owners. DMG has in fact indicated just the opposite by <br /> omitting project management costs from its account of reclamation <br /> costs which it recently furnished to Pitkin County District <br /> Court. <br /> MCR is suing DMG. Trial is set for August 7, 1998. In its suit, <br /> MCR, while paying its legal fees from bankruptcy funds meant to <br /> be paid to creditors, is shamelessly attempting to show that DMG <br /> doesn't need all of the $3 million payable to it according to the <br /> bankruptcy liquidation plan to complete reclamation. Obviously, <br /> DMG is weakening its own defense in court by omitting the project <br /> management costs, and such omission may jeopardize any future <br /> effort to recover them. Although we believe that DMG's conduct <br /> of the actual reclamation work to date has been done economically <br /> and diligently, we are dismayed and angered by certain recurrent <br /> decisions of DMG's leadership. These decisions at critical <br /> junctures have served to release MCR's owners from the <br /> responsibility of paying the costs of "fixing what they broke, " <br /> and have weakened the chances of obtaining sufficient funds to <br /> finish the reclamation job as it should be done. <br />