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March 18,2022 <br /> Page 6 <br /> designed to maintain compliance with all applicable water quality standards. The water samples <br /> collected since January 2022 have shown no exceedances above permitted water quality <br /> standards. See Affidavit of Sean Muller,¶¶5-6. <br /> Moreover, considering the existence of a water treatment system as evidence supporting a DMO <br /> designation is an impermissible and impractical expansion of the regulations. if the Division <br /> considers any operator that utilizes a water discharge treatment system to comply with water <br /> standards, including the abatement or neutralization of certain metals or other materials that could <br /> be potentially detrimental to human or aquatic life, then virtually every mine in Colorado that has <br /> a water discharge treatment system would have to be designated as a DMO. As a result, there <br /> would be very few 1 10 permit holders and even fewer operators with exemptions to 112 permits. <br /> Clearly, that is not the intent of Rule 1.1(1), nor how the rule should or has been applied. Our <br /> analysis of the Division's records showed a substantial number of 110 permitted mines in <br /> Colorado, including other gold and silver mines, that have discharge settling ponds and other <br /> water treatment systems covered under their permits. There have been certain instances where the <br /> Division has even granted an exemption under 112 permits to uranium operators. There is nothing <br /> unique about the Cross Mine's water treatment system or the mine's operations that would justify <br /> treating it differently than other mines. <br /> GIR is compliant with its mining permit number M-1977-410 and with its water discharge permit <br /> number CO-0032751. There are no activities or conditions at the Cross Mine that warrant the <br /> need for any increased regulatory oversight. The Division's DMO determination amounts to an <br /> unwarranted penalty assessed against the Cross Mine as the mine does not meet the criteria for <br /> designation as a DMO under Section 34-32-1 12.5, Rule 1.1(1), or Rule 1.1(20). <br /> There is no indication that "acid and toxic producing materials as natural or reworked earth <br /> materials having acid or toxic chemical and physical characteristics that, under mining or post- <br /> mining conditions of drainage, exposure, or other processes,produce materials which contain <br /> detrimental amounts of chemical constituents such as acids, bases, or metallic compounds" <br /> exist at the Cross Mine. <br /> GIR's current activities at the Cross Mine are focused on compliance with the NOV Order. There <br /> are no designated chemicals used in metallurgical processing stored on site, because no <br /> metallurgical processing occurs at the Cross Mine. The chemicals used or stored at the Cross <br /> Mine are those referenced in Safety Data Sheets. See Affidavit of Sean Muller, ¶4. <br /> The Cross Mine host rock is predominantly monzonite, a rock with high amounts of calcium that <br /> buffers any sulfides in the rock, and is a non-acid producing rock. The gold and silver occurs in <br /> the Cross Mine mostly with iron pyrite, and includes lead, zinc and copper sulfides with trace <br /> cadmium occurring with the zinc sulfides. Although the site contains some lead, zinc and copper <br /> sulfides and cadmium similar to the naturally occurring levels present in outcrops in the area, the <br />