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DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES Davitl H. Getchee, Executive Director sss MINED LAND RECLAMATION DIVISION DAVID C. SHELTON, Dlractor gichard D. Lamm Governor July 15, 1986 Mr. Joe U. Carrillo Las Animas County Planning and Land Use Office Las Animas County Courthouse, Room 104 Trinidad, Colorado 81082 F~ /~ Re: YOUR REQUEST FOR INFORMATION CONCERNING THE POSSIBILITY OF SECURING A RECLAMATION-ONLY PERMIT IN LIEU OF PAYMENT OF VARIOUS CIVIL PENALTIES (I.E., FOR 2 UNPERMITTED OPERATIONS AND IN REFERENCE TO PERMIT NO. M-83~ 39) Dear Mr. Carrillo: I have received your letter which advances a tentative plan to do reclamation of an old gravel pit in lieu of payment of civil penalties. Unfortunately, I am quite certain that you have misunderstood the type of plan that our Board would accept in lieu of civil penalties. I will attempt to clarify this matter further. Las Animas County is required to reclaim all redisturbed areas of that pit located about 3.5 miles east of Aguilar (referred to you as the "Makloski Pit") under the provisions of the Mined Land Reclamation Act and to permit it as an active mining operation. Its reclamation costs may not be used to offset the outstanding civil penalties owed by Las Animas County. I am very disturbed by another assertion in your letter. You now state that this operation comprises 15 acres (as verified by a surveyor). Yet, you informed me and our Board that this same mining operation comprised less than 10 acres, based also upon a survey. It was on this basis that the Board assessed a civil penalty of E100.00 per day of violation (based on an unpermitted area of less than 10 acres) rather than assessing a penalty of as much as E1,000.00 per day of violation (based on an unpermitted area of 10 acres or more). Please clarify precisely the area of this operation that you wish to defend as the area for which Las Animas County must now be responsible. You should be aware that your county must permit all areas of this pit that have been disturbed (or redisturbed) as a part of your current mining operation. I will now outline the procedure for doing reclamation in lieu of civil penalties. First, you will need to present this plan in detail to the Mined Land Reclamation Board during the upcoming July 24-25, 1986 meeting. The Board will need to hear details concerning why a chosen site should be accepted for reclamation in lieu of payment of your civil penalties. You should be able to justify that the execution of your plan will be in the 423 Centennial Building, 1313 Sherman Street Denver, Colorado 80203 Tel. (303) 866-3567