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JAMES A. BECKWITH <br />FONTANARI OBJECTIONS AND COMMENTS / SNOWCAP BOND APPLICATION SL -I I / PG. 10 <br />In 1996, Powderhorn incepted its Mine Dewatering System. This is a critical element of <br />the abandoned tunnels under Tract No. 70. Unconsumed mine water was stored beneath Tract <br />No. 70 as a "sump" and then released, first through Outflow 002 and, after 2000, then through <br />Outflow 016 (located in Fontanari Tract No. 23). This history is undoubtedly the reason for at <br />least three major surface subsidence expressions shown on Mr. Eldridge's 2018 Updated <br />Survey. (Fontanari Exhibit 17.) <br />First, during the 2018 bond release inspection a single line of rocks, running east -west <br />across the plateau and down its eastern slope, was noted. This is an area where in years past <br />GEX hired Fontanari to bulldoze over a surface tension crack. (Fontanari Exhibit 18.) This <br />is not a former roadway, as has been previously suggested. The photographs clearly reveal <br />only one crest, most likely created by bull -dozing earth into each side of the tension crack, <br />and rocks piling on top. There is no indication of another crest of rocks (or a depression <br />caused by vehicle tires) parallel to this crest, which would be the standard indicator of a <br />roadway. Notably, the line of these rocks goes straight to the water hole found in Subsidence <br />Event G, below. <br />Second, a line of sinkholes was first cataloged by Fontanari in 2016 along the same line <br />as Mr. Magers' 1985 "six stress cracks." (Fontanari Exhibit 19.) They are shown on Mr. <br />Eldridge's 2016 Plat and his 2018 Updated Plat. This line of sinkholes runs east -west across <br />the plateau and down its eastern slope. (Exhibit 9.) Mr. Hernandez tested the slope sinkholes, <br />finding them to be 24 inches or more deep. Mr. David Fox, P.E., and water engineering <br />consultant to Fontanari, tested the plateau sinkholes, finding one at 24 feet deep. (Fontanari <br />Exhibit 20.) <br />Third, another stress crack, coupled with a line of sinkholes, was found southeast of the <br />second line of sinkholes. (Exhibit 9.) These holes were also 2-3 feet deep and situated not far <br />from the crest of the plateau's slope. This line of sinkholes was not found in Fontanari <br />consultants' April 2016 inspection of Tract No. 70. It was found only in 2018. <br />Subsidence Event G / Tract No. 70 Central <br />DRMS' last transect was of the smaller plateau in the northeast corner of Tract No. 70. <br />On this tract Mr. Magers had installed four subsidence rods as part of his "D Line," all of <br />which appeared on Mr. Eldridge's 2016 survey plat. On August 16, Messrs. Hernandez and <br />Bowles found and logged two new sinkhole lines. (Fontanari Exhibit 21.) These sinkhole <br />lines were not present during the April, 2016 site inspection by the Fontanari consultants. <br />On August 24, 2018, Fontanari agents revisited the Subsidence Event locations. An <br />additional sinkhole was found along the Haul Road at the location of Subsidence Event G. <br />The previous night there had been a rain shower. Surface water flowed downslope and into <br />this sink hole: which measured at a 3 feet minimum depth. (Fontanari Exhibit 22.) The hole <br />borders a large borrow pit, (id.), but the water flowing into the hole did not reach that pit. <br />