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/. , • ~ III III III IIIIIII III <br />- ~ ~,~~ STATE OF COLyiv~uv <br />RoY Romer, Govei <br />DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES <br />MINED LAND RECLAMATION DIVISION <br />DAVID C. SHELTON, Dlreetor <br />October 16, 1987 <br />Mr, William Balaz _ <br />Kaiser Steel Corporation <br />102 South Tejon, Suite 800 <br />Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903 <br />Re: Chimney Rock Mine Notice of Violation C-87-035, Permit No. C-81-023 <br />Dear Mr, Balaz: <br />On October 6, 1987, the Division received the vegetation study required by <br />Abatement Step 3 of this enforcement action, With the submittal of this <br />vegetation study, all of the required abatements have been satisfied. <br />Therefore, enclosed please find a termination notice for this enforcement <br />action. <br />During the review of this vegetation study, a number of issues were identified <br />as addressed below. <br />1, Page one under "Methods" addresses an adequate statistical <br />confidence level of 80 percent. It should be noted that all of the <br />reclamation success criteria of Rule 4,15,8 have been modified to <br />90 percent. It appears that this 90 percent level was intended <br />since "(d) = amount of reduction to detect" is listed at 0.1, which <br />would correspond to a 90 percent detection level. <br />2. As discussed with you and Michael Cotes, the reference area used <br />for comparison purposes is not indicative of the reclaimed area in <br />question due to the tremendous true canopy resulting in limited <br />vegetation cover, Therefore, the comparison of 16,8 percent <br />vegetative cover of East Pit reclamation area to the 6.8 percent <br />vegetative cover of the Mixed Shrub Reference Area is very <br />misleading, <br />The Division encourages Kaiser Steel to locate a more acceptable <br />reference area that represents the proposed post-mining land use. <br />3, The Division is concerned about the lack of vegetation at this site <br />to control erosion, Although there is 16,8 percent cover, there is <br />also 55.7 percent bare ground, an inordinately high number which <br />explains some of the rill and gully problems continually <br />occurring, This lack of vegetation is supported by Point 3 of the <br />"Grazing Plan" which addresses the need to "Interseed the entire <br />reclaimed area with shrubs and fortis to increase cover and <br />production as well as species diversity." <br />423 Centennial Building, 7373 Sherman Street Denver, Colorado 80203-2273 Tel. (303) 666-3567 <br />