_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981017 ‎(311)‎

• Permit No: C1981017
• IBM Index Class Name: GENERAL DOCUMENTS
• Doc Name: Bid Documents ‎(IMP)‎
• Permit Index Doc Type: General Correspondence
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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.March 14, 1991 'lr_­-lar lati.On Division
Mr. Fred Banta
Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 215
Denver, Colorado 80203
RE: Coal Basin Permit Status
Dear Fred,
This is to follow up our meeting of last Friday, March 8, with a
summary of Pitkin County's concerns regarding the Coal Basin
mines and a copy of the County Special Use Permit Amendment that
was enacted by the County Commissioners at their regular meeting
of March 12 .
Pitkin County is concerned with both the short-term and the long-
term status of the Coal Basin Mines. In the short-term, we are
concerned that Mid-Continent Resources be held to a high standard
of performance and accountability while the mines remain idle.
We encourage you to increase your inspection schedule during this
period to ensure that water quality is maintained and that
appropriate reclamation efforts continue. To this end, we would
urge you to adopt the recommendations of the Forest Service Coal
Basin Report into your Mid-Term Review of Mid-Continent's Mining
Permit. We are also extremely concerned with the evidence of
toxic releases into the Coal Creek watershed that has been
uncovered by the DOW macroinvertebrate study and the recent WQCD
test results for the 016 Pond system. We urge you to incorporate
language into the Mid-Term Review that confirms Mid-Continent' s
responsibility to contribute to further studies of these problems
and to their remediation.
In the long-term, we are concerned that any new operator in Coal
Basin be fully aware of the problems associated with mining in
that area and fully capable of dealing with them. This is the
main thrust of attached Resolution #91-21 amending the County' s
Special Use Permit. While we want to clearly express our
willingness and intention to continue to permit mining in Coal
Basin, we also want to establish a performance threshold that
will give us confidence that a new operator will not perpetuate
the problems that we have been trying to resolve with Mid-
1
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