2016-10-27_REVISION - C1981041 - Laserfiche WebLink

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JAMES A. BECKWITH LETTER TO BROCK BOWLES, CO DRMS / SNOWCAP COAL COMPANY RECLAMATION / PG. 11 provide a wider hole at the surface than at the bottom. Snowcap will then lay a thick slab of grout into the hole to act as a "plug". This plug will then be covered with the excavated topsoil. Further, Snowcap proposes to install a concrete slab over the "shaft" in the Carey Pond and to cover that slab with surface soil. Snowcap nowhere explains why it rejects HBET's proposal. Snowcap nowhere advised DRMS why general excavation is more productive of a result than HBET's proposal. Certainly, Snowcap cannot claim that installing a grout cap on the air ventilation shaft will prevent the loss of surface water. Snowcap admits that the air shaft is not the hydrologic communication between surface water and the collapsed mine caverns below. (F) Snowcap's Proposal Results In Confiscation of Valuable Mineral Deposits For Which Snowcap Is Legally Obligated To Compensate In Fall, 2015, Fontanari and Public Service Company negotiated additional easements for installation of high voltage lines within Fontanari Tracts 70 and 71. Both Fontanari and Carey hold extraction permits from DRMS and Mesa County [Mesa County CUP #35-01 and 34-01] to extract basaltic materials from their respective properties. To illustrate the deposits to PSCo, Fontanari dug two test pits, each 25+ feet in depth. [Appendix P] Snowcap incorrectly refers to these pits as "shafts" but correctly notes that Fontanari has filled, compacted and covered the pits. Notably, the basaltic material excavated around the Carey Pond pit remained on the surface and was patently obvious and visible to Snowcap in September, 2015. Additionally, Fontanari hired a local driller to make ten bores to determine the apparent depths of the basaltic materials along the route of the proposed easement. This was the driller to which Mr. Berry referred in his April Report. [Pg. A14-14-2] The bores showed the presence of the basaltic material to depths of 50+ feet before hitting the underlying sandstone. Fontanari also retained Mr. John Garr, P.G., of Salt Lake City, UT, to inspect, review and opine on the quality and quantities of the basaltic material. The basaltic material is high-grade: weighing 168 lbs per cubic foot. It is quite valuable as there are few sources local to Mesa, Garfield and Delta Counties. Snowcap's Repair Plan to the air shaft [Pg. 14-34] the Carey Pond [Pg. 14-35] and the area 50 ft. northwesterly of the Air Shaft [Fig. 14-17] would cause permanent loss of the basaltic materials not only underlying these locations but also within a lateral support area for these areas. Whether overlain with grout or with a concrete slab, Fontanari and Carey would not be able to extract valuable minerals. Snowcap makes no provision for the payment of the losses to be sustained by Fontanari and Carey should the repair plan be approved. The dollar amount of the losses would be magnified if Snowcap was also required to make repairs to Tract 70. The sinkholes and surface depressions found in Tract 70 (and documented to DRMS on 5.6.2016) lie in the area of the bores made in Fall, 2015. Perhaps, for this reason, Snowcap has consistently and repeatedly refused to study all lands owned by Fontanari and Carey. Snowcap's refusal to address these