2016-11-28_INSPECTION - M1998013

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PERMIT#: M-1998-013 INSPECTOR'S INITIALS: ECS INSPECTION DATE: November 1,2016 OBSERVATIONS This inspection was conducted by Eric Scott and Wally Erickson of DRMS as a result of a citizen complaint submitted to DRMS on October 12, 2016. The complaint letter received from the residents of 11750 Weld County Road 11 1/4 alleges that the mining activity taking place at the adjacent site, an operation referred to as The Shores and operated by Bestway Concrete Company, has impacted the property's historic well which has been unable to provide sufficient water to satisfy the previous uses of lawn irrigation and stock watering for the past two summers. The letter also states that a replacement well installed by Bestway to replace the historic well in November of 2015 is also unable to provide sufficient water to meet the historic uses. This report summarizes the observations made by DRMS during the inspection as well as all additional information made available to DRMS with respect to this issue to-date. During the inspection, DRMS met with property owner Jennifer Lee. Ms. Lee allowed DRMS to observe both the historic well and the replacement well (see attached photos), and related her experiences to-date. Ms. Lee stated that the historic well located on the property, constructed of slotted four foot diameter concrete rings, had always provided sufficient water for their lawn irrigation and stock watering uses until mining and de-watering activity began adjacent to their property in January of 2015. The historic well is located approximately 175 feet directly west of the nearest excavated/dewatered cell (see attached map). Mining of this adjacent property was permitted by Amendment 2 (AM02) which was issued by DRMS in May of 2014. The historic well located on the Lee property was not permitted with the State Engineer's Office Division of Water Resources (SEO) until the Registration of Existing Well forms were submitted by Ms. Lee on April 29, 2015 and approved by SEO on July 7, 2015. Therefore this well did not appear in the reporting of surrounding wells that was provided as part of the AM02 submittal and review. Prior to the historic well permit submittal, Glover's Drilling conducted a service call on April 7, 2015 and installed a new pump controller and safety shut- off to address reported supply issues. In June 2016 Bestway began paying the water bill for the Central Weld County Water District 5/8" residential tap that supplies the Lee residence allowing them to also utilize that water source if needed for lawn irrigation and stock watering without incurring additional costs. The nearest Bestway water level monitoring point is the "SE well" located in the southeast corner of the adjacent mining cell, approximately 1200 feet east of the historic well, and immediately adjacent to the mining cell. DRMS reviewed the monitoring data collected from "SE well" from March 5, 2014 through August 23, 2016. The data indicate that the average depth to water in "SE well" prior to January 2015 was approximately 7.1 feet below grade. The data also show that, due to mining/dewatering activity, water levels in "SE well" were several feet below the average pre-mining level between December and June 2015, and also during March 2106 through the end of the monitoring data in August 2016. Maximum drawdown in "SE well" during these intervals was observed to be near 13 feet below grade—a drop in water level of approximately six feet. Although "SE well" is much closer to the excavation and dewatering activity than the historic Lee well, it is reasonable to assume that the historic well, located less than 200 feet from the excavation, was also impacted by the dewatering activity associated with mining this cell. Mining has since been completed in the cell adjacent to the Lee property, and dewatering of this cell will end as soon as the clay liner for the cell is completed. Projected liner completion date at this time is March 2017. DRMS believes that when dewatering ceases the static water levels in the surrounding areas should quickly return to approximate pre-mining levels. DRMS will require that the permittee continue to collect weekly water level data from all monitoring wells and submit that data to the Division for review on a monthly basis until further notice. Page 2 of 5