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Ill. COMMENTS -COMPLIANCE Below are comments on the inspection. The comments include discussion of observations made during the inspection. Comments also describe any enforcement actions taken during the inspection and the facts or evidence supporting the enforcement action. This was a complete quarterly inspection of the reclaimed bond forfeiture site. Weather was partly cloudy, warm and humid. I arrived at the mine site at approximately 2:30 p.m. A flash flood type storm event had occurred at the mine site the ~- night of August 5. The rainfall amount, duration, and intensity is not known, however an intense thunder storm occurred in the city of Grand Junction around midnight, on the night of August 5 and early morning of August 6. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported in its August 6 edition that .92 inches of rain fell between 12:10 and 12:30, with an additional .30 inch about an hour later. The paper quoted the Mesa County public works director as reporting minor flooding throughout the Grand Junction area, and a National Weather Service meteorologist as explaining that "the storm cell came across Douglas Pass Tuesday evening, causing a mud slide and large boulder to threaten Colorado Highway 139 before building over the Grand Valley. Most of the moisture dropped in the valley before it dissipated toward Delta." As indicated in the newspaper account, minor flooding appeared to be widespread in the Grand Junction/ Fruita vicinity. All of the drainage arroyos between the highline canal north of Fruita and the mine site were either flowing or showed evidence of very recent flow. Approximately 4 miles south of the mine, flooding from a drainage apparently originating in the Bookcliffs several mile$ east of the mine had deposited mud several inches deep along a 100 yard segment of the road on either side of the culverted drainage. At the minesite, the storm runoff and associated mud and boulders originating from the steep slopes above the head of the canyon in which the mine is located had completely overwhelmed the 100 year diversion ditch above the Fruita #1 Mine Bench, resulting in severe erosion of the #1 Mine outslope, road and pond embankments, and roadside ditches. Debris ranging from mud to 8' diameter boulders had been deposited in areas of lower gradient throughout the mine site. Water level in the sediment pond was 4 feet below the top of the riser, and the pond had not discharged. The pond embankment had sustained erosion from water which had run down the road and spilled over the embankment, but the extent of damage did not appear to be such that the integrity of the structure was threatened. There was minor sediment deposition and minor erosion on rangeland south of the minesite resulting from drainage which came off the access road at the permit boundary, but the flow had entered a