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L PROCEDURES AND SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW PROCESS <br />The Mountain Coal Company, LLC (MCC) applied for Partial Phase I Bond Release under the <br />Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act following reclamation of a portion of the West Elk <br />Mine. The mine is located in Gunnison and Delta Counties, approximately 10 miles east of Paonia, <br />Colorado, on Colorado Highway 133. The mine area is located in all or portions of Sections 9 <br />through 36 (inclusive), Township 13 South, Range 90 West; Sections 23 through 26 (inclusive), <br />Township 13 South, Range 91 West; and Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, Township 14 <br />South, Range 90 West; all of the 6th Principal Meridian. The permit area can be found on the <br />Bowie and Somerset USGS 7.5- minute quadrangle maps. <br />Bond Release Summary <br />Partial Phase I Bond Release SL -01 was received on 19 July 2004 and requested a release of 15.19 <br />acres for the thermal event disturbance area. The Division approved the Partial Phase I Bond <br />Release SL -01 on 14 October 2005 and released $79,727.00. <br />Partial Phase I Bond Release SL -02 was received on 26 July 2004 and requested a release of 5.5 <br />acres for the Lone Pine Gulch facilities area. The Division approved the Partial Phase I Bond <br />Release SL -01 on 2 November 2005 and released $122,629.00. <br />The Division received MCC's SL -03 application for a Partial Phase I Bond Release on 16 May <br />2011. The application was deemed complete on 11 July 2011, after receiving a copy of the affidavit <br />of publication of West Elk's SL -03 legal notice. The legal notice was published four times in the <br />Delta County Independent (on 1 June, 8 June, 15 June and 22 June 2011). The Division conducted <br />a bond release inspection on 19 and 20 July 2011. The site inspection was conducted in accordance <br />with Rule 3.03.2(2) in response to the operator's filing of the complete Partial Phase I Bond Release <br />application SL -03. Lands included in the bond release area were federally and privately owned. <br />The coal mined in the bond release area was federally and privately owned. Persons present during <br />the bond release inspection on the 19 included: Tom Kaldenbach representing the Division, Ryan <br />Sweetwater representing MCC, Mike Ward, a consultant for MCC, Dan Gray representing the US <br />Forest Service (attending all day on 19 July 2011) and Ryan Taylor representing the US Forest <br />Service (attending the morning portion of the inspection on 20 July 2011). Elizabeth Schaffer <br />representing the OSM was notified of the inspection but could not attend. Letters notifying surface <br />and adjacent landowners of the inspection were also mailed but no landowners attended the <br />inspection. <br />Since all of sites were not inspected during the original inspection (19 and 20 July 2011), follow -up <br />inspections were conducted on 19 and 20 June 2012 and 7 August 2012. Both of these inspections <br />were done in conjunction with the MCC partial Phase II Bond Release inspection SL -04. On the <br />19 -20 June 2012 Jim Stark representing the Division, Kathy Welt and Robin Schiro representing <br />MCC, Mike Ward, a consultant for MCC, Dan Gray representing the US Forest Service and Christy <br />Hulsman representing the OSM attended the inspection. Letters notifying surface and adjacent <br />landowners of the inspection were mailed but no landowners attended the inspection. On the 7 <br />West Elk Mine SL -03 Findings 3 10 August 2012 <br />