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JoEllen Turner <br />Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety <br />1313 Sherman Street, Room 215 <br />Denver, Colorado 60203 <br />United States Department of Interior <br />Office of Surface Mining <br />Reclamation and Enforcement <br />1999 Broadway St Suite 3320 <br />Denver. Colorado 80202-3050 <br />Re: Mining applications and revisions publicized in Newspaper <br />To Whom It May Concern: This is a formal objection and a request for an informal hearing regarding several issues. t believe there <br />needs to be a hearing held in Nucla, Colorado for the farmers and ranchers to address the issues that are be presented. First, this <br />Permit Revision number 7 is way out of time. My family used to own many of the lands that are presently being mined and have <br />been mined. The Morgan property being one of those. The Sunshine Corner was one of the nicest farms in the valley. It had nice <br />hay fields and corn fields and was well managed and well irrigated. The Morgan family has a lifetime invested in this place. This is <br />their future, their retirement, and their tiveifiood. None of you have the right to take that away from them. II was always prime <br />farmland. It had the nioeet soils in the country. They kept It nice and they strived to make improvements and make it nicer each <br />and every year long before the mine was ever there. <br />The Benson Mountain is stet a problem and should have never been allowed to be that far out of the original contour. That was my <br />home and it is nothing like when I used to live there. it is a huge mountain now and nothing like it was. This is wrong. <br />A permit should not be granted to a coal mine that is not in compliance with the law. What I know about the taw is not as much as I <br />would like, but I do know that they have to meet certain standards and the ones I do know, they are not doing. I do know that when <br />a complaint has been filed that the person complaining should be allowed to accompany the inspector and this has never been <br />done. My family tells me that they complain and object and not one time have they been able to go over with the Inspector and <br />show the actual complaint. In my business, this is wrong, very wrong. They tell me that they have requested many times and even <br />in writing to be able to be present when an inspection is being done regarding their complaints, and they have been refused to be <br />present I do know that this is a requirement of the law that needed to be fulfilled and instead, they were ignored. Decisions we <br />made and concluded without even talking well the Morgans. The sad part is, they are right there and available at all times. They <br />have been done wrong. When they have complained about activities that were happening in the rain or snow or anything, they <br />have been ignored and never permitted to attend one of these inspections In all these years. <br />I was never responded to and have sent several letters. I do not live in the area now, but this was my home growing up and I lived <br />there al my years as a child and teenager. i return almost every year for visiting and more if possible. <br />I have been trying to learn all of these rules and these laws and they are extensive especially when I can only devote so much time <br />to it. But i do know that assumptions can be very damaging and getting the facts from the people who have been on those farms <br />their entire lives would be much more beneficial and this has never been done. They are ignored and disregarded and this Is their <br />lives that everyone seems to be playing with. Put their farm back to the prime farmland it was. The permit revision needs to be <br />thrown - out - t - hae no fade and- the- conclusions-arevery- damaging to the Morgans- which-should not be the case I would not allow - - <br />any coal mine to have a permit renewal if all they can do is try and take shortcuts and undermine the facts to cause serious <br />damages to a landowner. They should of done it right In the first place and these problems would not exist today. There are laws <br />governing all of this and these laws should have been taken seriously and were not. <br />Sincerely, <br />Bode Porter <br />11422 Northcross t.n. <br />San Angelo, TX 76904 <br />970 - 864 - 7682 p.2 <br />February 2, 2013 <br />