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water storage is a closed system, thus minimizing disturbances to the prevailing hydrologic <br /> balance. <br /> CMC Response: The use of the Wynona Mine workings for underground water storage was <br /> accepted when the Gold Hill Mill was approved by the Mined Land Reclamation Board on <br /> September 25, 1985. The Wynona Mine workings are currently storing water as originally <br /> permitted under the 1985 Cash Mine Permit Amendment. The Wynona Mine workings have been <br /> filled with water since 1987, when water was first pumped behind the Times Mine Bulkhead, and <br /> there has never been any observed, or reported, disturbance to the prevailing hydrologic balance <br /> in this area. No downgradient water rights or wells located in the town of Gold Hill have been <br /> affected by the underground storage of water in these mine workings. There has not been a single <br /> claim made by anyone during the last three decades asserting that their water rights have been <br /> injured by the water that was stored in the Times and Wynona Mines. The most recent water level <br /> measurements in the Wynona Mine shaft drill hole found the water to be approximately ninety <br /> (90) feet below the ground surface; and the water level in the Times Mine drill hole encountered <br /> water approximately eighty-nine (89) feet below the ground surface. This demonstrates that both <br /> of these mines are sharing the same underground water pool through the connection of the Times <br /> Mine winze with the Wynona Mine. Accordingly, any requirement to measure the water level in <br /> the Wynona Mine for fifteen months prior to starting milling operations in the Gold Hill Mill <br /> would be redundant and unnecessary. <br /> A Hydrologic Study of this area was conducted by Adrian Brown Consultants, Inc. in 2006 for the <br /> last permitted operator of the Gold Hill Mill. This report provided useful information about the <br /> groundwater flow system of the area around the Gold Hill Mill. It was filed with the DRMS on <br /> December 8, 2006. Adrian Brown, P.E. reached several conclusions from his study of the <br /> hydrogeology of this area that confirms the same observations that were included in CMC's <br /> December 8, 2018 Response Letter to the DRMS's Adequacy Review No. 1. The groundwater <br /> level was measured in the four monitoring wells located below the Millsite. Groundwater was <br /> found to be approximately thirty(30) feet to sixty(60) feet below ground surface in all four wells. <br /> This indicated that the rockmass comprising Horsfal Flat is saturated close to the ground surface, <br /> which can only occur if the permeability of the rockmass is sufficiently low to be unable to remove <br /> the infiltration from precipitation in this area. The precipitation at Gold Hill is 19.5 inches per year, <br /> 8 <br />