Laserfiche WebLink
Peter Wayland <br />November 18, 2014 <br />Page 2 <br />evaporation losses. You have stated that the Kirtright Pit is in the reclamation stage. Also, not <br />being able to continue operating under a substitute water supply plan until the reclamation is <br />complete will cause undue hardship to the applicant. <br />Note, that the approval of this substitute water supply plan does not relieve the <br />Applicant and/or landowner of the requirement to obtain a Water Court decree approving a <br />permanent plan for augmentation or mitigation to ensure the permanent replacement of all <br />depletions, including long -term evaporation losses and lagged depletions after gravel mining <br />operations have ceased. To allow additional time for filing, the deadline for submitting an <br />application for a plan for augmentation is hereby extended to December 31, 2015 by way of this <br />letter. Approval of this plan does not imply approval by this office of any related litigation. By <br />that date the Applicant or its successor in ownership must have either filed an application with <br />the Water Court for a court- approved augmentation plan or commenced backfilling of the site <br />or explain why an extension to the above deadline is required. <br />In accordance with the letter dated April 30, 2010 (copy attached) from the Colorado <br />Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety ( "DRMS "), all sand and gravel mining operators <br />must comply with the requirements of the Colorado Reclamation Act and the Mineral Rules and <br />Regulations for the protection of water resources. The April 30, 2010 letter from DRMS requires <br />that you provide information to DRMS to demonstrate you can replace long term injurious <br />stream depletions that result from mining related exposure of ground water. <br />In accordance with approach no. 4, you have provided an affidavit dated January 27, <br />2012, that dedicates 0.5 shares of Hillsborough Ditch water as replacement water solely for this <br />SWSP for as long as there are depletions at this gravel pit site or until such time as another <br />replacement source is obtained. A copy of the affidavit is attached to this letter. For the <br />purposes of this SWSP, this affidavit will be accepted for the dedication of the shares; however, <br />if the State Engineer determines that a different affidavit or dedication process is necessary to <br />assure proper dedication of the shares, additional information may be required prior to future <br />SWSP approvals. <br />Depletions <br />Consumptive use of water at the property consists of 45.92 acre -feet of evaporation from up to <br />21.49 acres of exposed after December 31, 1980. Depletions from evaporation at the mine site will <br />accrue to Big Thompson River. <br />Computation of evaporation under this plan was also reduced during the ice covered period. You <br />have assumed the ice covered period to occur during the months of January, February and December, <br />based on the average temperatures of 27.5 °F for January, 30.6 °F for February and 29.1 OF for December; <br />taken from the Fort Collins weather station. However, for the purpose of this SWSP, the Applicant shall <br />replace the net evaporation depletions from the exposed ground water surface area that may occur <br />during the assumed ice covered period (the months of January, February and December) for any time <br />that the pit is not completely covered by ice. <br />You have provided a monthly breakdown of the annual depletions at this site in your attached <br />Table AL 1. The IDS AWAS stream depletion model was used to determine the lagged depletions from <br />evaporation to the Big Thompson River. The aquifer characteristics used in the model are: <br />