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Mine Site Evaluation <br />Mine Name: Marr Mine <br />Permittee: Kerr Coal Company <br />Permit ID #: C- 1980 -006 <br />Inspection Date:December 17, 2012 <br />Inspection Type: Phase III Bond Release (28.7 acres) <br />Weather Conditions: Cold, windy, intermittent snow, light snow cover <br />Participants: <br />Gordon Brocker, Operator Representative <br />Rob Zuber, Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety (DRMS) <br />Daniel MacKinnon, Office of Surface Mining (OSM) <br />On October 29, 2012, Kerr Coal Company submitted bond release application SL -5, which <br />requested that all remaining bond and reclamation liability be released for the Marr Mine. I <br />participated in the SL- 5Phase III bond release inspection for the final 28.7 reclaimed acres of <br />disturbance within the Kerr (Mary) Mine and the Loadout permit areas. DRMS notified other <br />pertinent parties (BLM, landowner, adjacent landowners) of this bond release inspection, but <br />they did not attend. Prior to and after this evaluation I reviewed the bond release application and <br />other relevant files from both the OSM Western Region Office and the online database <br />maintained by DRMS. <br />Across the entire mine site, Federal, State, and private coal was mined under Federal, State and <br />private land. OSM is a co -payee on the reclamation surety bond. Kerr Coal Company has <br />requestedthe final $19,619.00held in the performance bond released. If DRMS approves this <br />request, it would then terminate its jurisdiction over this site. DOGM administers the bond <br />release process in part through the State- Federal Cooperative Agreement found at 30 CFR, Part <br />906.30. Weather conditions were cold, windy,and intermittent snow flurries occurred; 1 -2 inches <br />of snow was present throughout the permit area. Due to the time of year, snow cover, and wind, <br />plant species were difficult to identify. Inspection attendees attempted to provide genus -level <br />identification of some plants, but in many instances this was not possible. <br />Rob Zuber began the inspection on the morning of December 17, 2012at approximately 10:00 <br />am with a brief overview byorienting the participants to the areas under consideration for bond <br />release and briefing us on thearea's mining and reclamation history. We then evaluated the <br />loadout area, which is located approximately 1 mile east of the town of Walden, on Highway 14. <br />We began the evaluation by walking through the loadout site, which does not include any federal <br />surface. During this walk Rob mentioned that the bond application would need to be amended, as <br />the entire loadout area is under consideration for Phase III bond release, and the map within the <br />application did not reflect this. Gordon agreed to update the application. The area where the <br />loadout pond had been reclaimed was well vegetated with perennial shrubs (rabbitbrush) and <br />grasses.Some Kochia,a generally undesirable species that thrives in disturbed areas(although not <br />a listed noxious weed in Colorado),was present but is common in this area. The irrigation ditch <br />on the Highway 14 side of the permitted area is well vegetated with perennial riparian species <br />(e.g. cattails). The well (KW -3) and electricity that will remain on the western section of the <br />