_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981017 (138)

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P�N,ENT OF TyF � � United States Department of the Interior low o ' OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING CH 3 �sa� RECLAMATION AND ENFORCEMENT ■ WASHINGTON,D.C.20240 OCT 2 6 9M Mr. Steven G. Renner Coal Program Supervisor Division of Minerals and Geology Department of Natural Resources 1313 Sherman Street, Room 215 s, ,_' �� l t99 Denver, Colorado 80203 Dear Mr. Re r: Than you for your letter of August 18 requesting informal review of the Albuquerque Field Office (AFO) Director's determination that your agency did not take appropriate action with respect to ten-day notice (TDN) number 93- 020-190-05, Mid-Continent Resources (Mid-Continent), Coal Basin Mine. The TDN alleges a failure to maintain a diversion ditch in a stable manner. In your request for review, you state that the ditch and pre-law refuse pile in question have been in place since approximately 1964 and that your agency has already issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) for failure to maintain the ditch located at the base of the refuse pile. For several reasons, you disagree with the AFO's position that the abatement measure in the NOV issued by your agency should extend to include stabilization of the pre-law refuse pile. First, you state that the problem areas of the ditch identified in your NOV resulted from sediment deposition by flows in the ditch, and not from stumpage of the pre-law refuse pile into the diversion. Second, you note that there is no evidence to suggest that the material in the pre-law refuse pile which has slumped did so as a result of the ditch's presence and without such evidence you believe that additional enforcement action is not warranted at this time. Third, you add that movement of refuse or cover material ort the pile may be due to many causes and that your agency intends to conduct a geotechnical evaluation within thirty days and should that evaluation show that the regulated ditch is causing instability in the pre- law refuse pile, your agency will then take appropriate enforcement action. According to the record, on June 17, 1993, your agency issued an NOV to Mid-Continent citing a failure to maintain the diversion ditch in question.