2013-01-25_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981008

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JoEllen Turner 970 -864 -7682 p.4 Dear Editor: This is an article to help people understand things that have happened involving WFC and the Morgans. All the rumors are flying rampantly without any facts. Threats to JoEllen Turner on numerous occasions by WFC Emloyees or fiends of Employees in documentations. Threats such as "I hate JoEllen Turner, I wished some one would kill her, I wished she were dead. Others stating that someone should cut off my head and bury me in the pit with the farm and no one would know. Others stating that JoEllen Turner has no right to challenge WFC. MR. Morgan and his family purchased the Morgan property in 1959. It has been continuously irrigated and cropped during that period and Mr. Morgan is and has been the largest shareholder of the CCC Ditch . This Ditch delivers water from the San Miguel River to the local farmers and ranchers in this area. Pr -07 has been submitted several weeks back, as some of you may have noticed in the Local Forum. November 26 of 2012 the Morgans proceeded with Civil action in District court in Montrose where a Judgment was given for failure of WFC to carry out the requirements of the Colorado Surface, Mining, and reclamation Act as well as the rules and regulations promulgated there under. As a result of this Judgment, WFC was ordered to pay attorney fees of approximately 143,000 and expert witness fess of approximately 97,000, as well as court cost. They were also charged with breaching the lease. These rulings were a result of lack of diligence to make sure that all facts were presented to the State as well as honoring the rules and regulations governing prime farmlands. Many rules and the ACT were broken. A prime farmland investigation (2.04.12) had never been done for the Morgan Property or anywhere else for over 15 years. NRCS had documented many years, approximately 40, that the Morgan property was prime farmland. This was ignored and WFC presented MR -51 and M R -57 that changed the use of a two lift operation of the soils. This was a requirement by the Act as well as by all rules and regulations governing any agricultural soils, prime or non - prime. (4.06). Approximately 198, 358 cubic yards of soils were removed from the Morgan property and put on neighboring properties. This is documentation submitted by WFC concerning soils prior to mining , in permits as far back as 1998, when a soil survey was completed. The Morgan property has had no reclamation done in 10 years. The law requires this to be done in a "timely" manner as was East of 2700 Road. The proper procedures to objecting to things that might adversely affect a and owner are to first file an objection, next request an informal hearing, next request administrative review, then a formal hearing before the Mine Land Reclamation Board, and then lastly a judicial review in District court. All the time, if one feels that the Sate is not abiding by their rules, then the Office of Surface mining can also be contacted. These are done in a set time frame of which, even if you are a day late, they will not be accepted. WFC mines ALL private lands. These farmers are paid like the Morgans, $1.40 per ton for the coal or more. This amount for the Morgans, as public record will show, was approximately a million dollars since 1998. In return, WFC sells the coal which they got approximately 12 million dollars for the coal from the Morgan property. In the years that Morgans were productive, since 1998, the One million dollars would be an obtainable figure from production if they had not chose to lease the property. The Morgans chose to lease the property because they had the coal, they had many family relatives either at WFC, Tri- State, or San Miguel Power. At no time did the Morgans ever engage in any action to shut the mine down. They know the value of "CHEAP" energy versus green power and at no time did they want