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Currently side slope reclamation is nearing completion in conjunction with the <br />completion of mining activities. Within the next two months it is anticipated that the <br />slurry wall will be repaired from the flood damage suffered in September, 2013. <br />CAUSATION <br />The Board will recall that the primary issue of contention between the Operator <br />and the Division at the March 25, 2015 hearing was whether the swampy conditions on <br />the west side of the Orr property was caused by groundwater mounding as asserted by <br />the Division which in turn was caused by AI's installation of the slurry wall or, as the <br />Operator contended, were the swampy conditions the result of surface flows beyond the <br />control of the Operator such as: <br />• Pre-existing wetlands north of Orr parcel <br />• Releases from the Fulton Ditch on an easement given to the Ditch Company <br />by Orr's predecessors -in -interest; <br />• Recent and concrete lining of Fulton Ditch with new drain system parelling <br />area at issue with underdrains <br />• Bypasses at a Fulton Ditch turnout near 104th Avenue into the Bull Seep; <br />• Realignment of the Bull Seep and First Creek by another Operator that was <br />permitted by this Board; and <br />• Sheet flows from neighboring residential subdivisions to the east of the <br />subject property. <br />DIVISION'S DENIAL <br />Now in order to deny the Operator's request for a technical revision, the Division <br />has to do a 180 degree turn, ignore its evidence that groundwater mounding was the <br />sole cause of the swampy conditions and speculate that any solution "will divert surface <br />and groundwater into the previously isolated reservoir" and will "influence lands <br />located beyond the approved boundary of affected lands." This determination not only <br />ignores the evidence from a qualified hydrologist at the March hearing, but also is <br />contrary to the Division's presentation at the March 25, 2015 hearing that the sole <br />cause of the swamp on the Orr property was from groundwater mounding associated <br />with the slurry wall. <br />It is important to note that the Division is incorrect when it concludes that <br />"under the approved reclamation plan the reservoir (previous pit area) was isolated <br />from the surrounding surface and groundwater systems." To the contrary: <br />• The approved reclamation plan does provide for reclamation of the mine <br />to a lined reservoir, which isolates the pit from groundwater and reduces <br />water augmentation requirements for evaporative losses from exposed <br />groundwater surface. Lined reservoirs are not, however, intended to <br />3 <br />