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JAMES A. BECKWITH <br />FONTANARI OBJECTIONS AND COMMENTS / SNOWCAP BOND APPLICATION SL -I I / PG. 3 <br />and the bordering sinkholes, together with the potential presence of a surface subsidence <br />trough at the eastern edge of Tract No. 71. <br />As a result of this subsidence, the Study Area contains numerous sinkholes that <br />prohibit Fontanari from using flood irrigation to facilitate seasonal livestock grazing and <br />wildlife habitat. Past experience has shown that when Fontanari utilizes this irrigation <br />method, the water is immediately lost, or disappears, down the respective sinkholes (i.e., <br />hydrologic communications).3 As a result, Fontanari must use other forms of irrigation to <br />sustain the livestock grazing and wildlife habitats on his property. Fontanari is currently <br />installing a sprinkler irrigation system to avoid these hydrologic communications. This has <br />required Fontanari to pipe the entire Martin Crawford Ditch, as well as install lateral lines <br />within Tracts Nos. 70 and 71. (DBMS officials observed these site improvements during the <br />August 14-16, 2018 bond release inspection.) <br />In April 2018, Snowcap initiated SL -11 to obtain a partial bond release as to the Study <br />Area. Snowcap published a public notice concerning Application SL -11 in the Grand Junction <br />Daily Sentinel from April 27 through May 18, 2018. That notice stated that written comments <br />or objections and a request for hearing was required to be filed "within thirty (30) days of the <br />last publication of this notice or within thirty (30) days of the completed bond release <br />inspection, whichever is later." (Emphasis Supplied) On July 31, 2018, DRMS sent its Notice <br />of Intended Inspection, scheduling a bond release field inspection the week of August 13, <br />2018. DBMS officials Daniel Hernandez, Brock Bowles, and Clayton Wein conducted that <br />inspection on August 14-16, 2018. <br />In its Application, Snowcap contends that surface subsidence has not occurred since <br />1985. (Application, Tab 10: "Surveys occurred from 1981 to 1985. A survey performed in <br />June 1991 determined there was no measurable residual subsidence.") Snowcap is wrong. <br />The continued existence of surface tension cracks and sinkholes on Tract No. 70 in the <br />identical areas Mr. Magers identified in 1981-85 and 1992 belie that contention. Indeed, Mr. <br />Magers observed that: <br />"... the affected area during the survey of June 1991 showed only one crack <br />(Fig. 12); this crack was approximately 1 to 2 ft wide and ranges in depth from <br />1 to 9 feet. The orientation of this crack was similar to the sets of cracks <br />shown in figure 10 (1981-1985), crossing the A-line between A5 and AG and <br />crossing the B-line between B5 and B6. The length of the crack was <br />approximately 200 ft, with the deepest section in the middle of the length. The <br />crack occurred in the tensile zone of the subsidence profiles for both the A- and <br />B -monitoring lines. The subsidence profiles show no appreciable change from <br />1985 to 1991." <br />3 In a Joint Stipulation filed in Case No. 2017CV30314 (Common Law Claims) Snowcap and <br />Fontanari agreed Fontanari would not use any flood irrigation on Tract No. 71 during the <br />pendency of that action. (Fontanari Exhibit 4) <br />