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Colorado, the Colorado Division of Water Resources, the Army Corps of Engineers, <br /> and Colorado Parks and Wildlife. <br /> 4. The public comment period closed on May 30, 2019. Following the <br /> close of public comment, the Division received one untimely letter of objection as <br /> well as a comment letter from Adams County. <br /> 5. During the review period, the Division generated three adequacy <br /> review letters. The Applicant addressed all of the Division's adequacy issues to the <br /> Division's satisfaction. <br /> 6. On July 26, 2019, based on the applicable're quire me nts of the Colorado <br /> Land Reclamation Act for the Extraction of Construction Materials, Article 32.5 of <br /> Title 34, C.R.S. ("Act") and the Rules, the Division issued and served on all parties <br /> both a written recommendation for approval of the Amendment Application over <br /> objection and a written rationale for that recommendation. <br /> 7. On August 5, 2019, the Board, through a prehearing officer, conducted <br /> a prehearing conference in Bennett, Colorado. The prehearing officer issued a draft <br /> prehearing order. Among other things, the draft prehearing order identified five <br /> issues for the parties to present to the Board for consideration, the mining plan, <br /> geotechnical stability, the reclamation plan, hydrology, and wildlife. At the <br /> hearing, the Board considered the draft prehearing order and invited amendments <br /> or adjustments to be proposed by the parties. The Board adopted the draft <br /> prehearing order as presented. <br /> 8. At the hearing, Applicant presented evidence through testimony by Ben <br /> Frei and Steve O'Brian regarding the issues identified in the prehearing order. <br /> 9. Objectors presented evidence through testimony by Victoria Katchen, <br /> Jennifer Curtis, Kelsey Magnuson, Elva Munos, and Nancy Donaldson regarding the <br /> issues identified in the prehearing order. <br /> 10. Applicant presented testimony that its mining plan calls for the use of <br /> traditional sand and gravel mining methods and that no explosives will be utilized <br /> at the site. Regarding geotechnical issues, Applicant testified that it had obtained <br /> agreements with most adjacent landowners, but because it was unable to obtain one <br /> agreement, it had conducted a geotechnical study that demonstrated that its <br /> proposed 3:1 slope was stable and compatible with the post-mining use of <br /> rangeland. <br /> 11. Regarding its reclamation plan, Applicant presented testimony that its <br /> plan had been submitted with the application and had not changed since the permit <br /> was originally issued in 2001. The site will still be reclaimed for a post-mining use <br /> of rangeland. <br /> Albert Frei & Sons, Inc. <br /> AFS-Bennet Pit/M-2001-038 2 <br />