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I! I! II II 1\ II II II II - - - - - - - I J ~ ~ normal floodplain, so the next large flood will take out this road and hit the ponds full force. Blair says they could all go like dominos and send the whole river channel down upon people below. Or they could blowout sideways and rush down upon homes between the ponds and the present river channel. Should a high-jacked channel flow down upon the Line Camp it could repeat the wash-out there and then proceed God knows where. If you mention this scenario to the gravel company or to Division of Minerals and Geology staff, they speak of "backwaters." We geologists are not talking backwaters; we are talking the river channel itself Neither the County Commissioners nor the majority of citizens understand this information, nor have they heard it, nor do they want to hear it. Even citizens who packed the room in three hearings contesting the latest Line Camp Pit did not realize their danger: they just didn't want the scenery ruined or gravel pits dug next to their houses. That is why we have appealed to Governor Owens. One mile downstream from Twin Spruce, the Line Camp Pit will bring its own dangers. Its reclamation plan calls for two berms that directly threaten families living just downstream. A 350-foot berm along the side of the pit area will constrict floodwaters, then release themin a sideways rush upon the houses of Jack Akin and of the Robinsons. A 700-foot berm across the whole south end ofthe pit area, even with two gaps, will partially impound floodwaters, break, and send water and fines down upon the Robinsons, Moreover, the Line Camp Pit also will be subject to pit capture in future large flood events. It is set back 500 feet from the river by an old channel filled with cottonwoods. A man the Forest Service in Ft. Collins considers to be the nation's top cottonwood expert stated that these trees will die; and the Dolores is fully capable of carving a new meander into the old channel as explained earlier. A 600-footer, normal to this river, would broach the ponds. Or an 8,000-cfs flood could reconfigure the present channel and cut in above the Line Camp and capture the pit, creating a new pathway down valley. In addition, there is another plug of gravel moving down the channel now, one mile above the Line Camp. When this passes through, it could cause either a new meander or a sudden channel shift via the braiding mechanism. As the final potential individual victim of pit-augmented flooding, we have 83-year-old Bill Ortiz living just below the expanding Koenig Pit. A mining plan there calls for piles of topsoil and waste fines 20 feet high along the perimeter beside the river. A large flood would again be constricted by these piles acting as pseudo-levees, then released sideways upon Ortiz and upon Highway 145 itself. Dr. Johnson points out that the highway could be severed because it runs adjacent to the river there, near Stapleton Bridge. Altogether there will be 28 ponds within a five-mile stretch of river, beginning 5 miles above the town. If catastrophic channel shift due to pit capture occurrs upstream, there is no predicting where the river will approach Dolores town. It could reclaim its old, pre- 1911 route right through downtown. Mo'reover, 5 miles of pond-riddled, weakened sediments could be dumped into McPhee Reservoir and seriously reduce its storage capacity. Please realize that both Dr. Johnson and Dr. Blair expect a great channel shift to occur. It will not take a I aD-year flood to do this; they are wprried about 20-50-year