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r r • • MINE ID # OR PROSPECTING ID#: M-1999-050 INSPECTION DATE: 8-27-01 OBSERVATIONS PAGE: 2 INSPECTOR'S INITIALS: ACS Mr. Louis Swift is an adjacent landowner immediately south of the Timnath Connell Pit. The Swift Property is the location of several fishing ponds that have historically been fed by ground water. During the permitting process for the Timnath Connell Pit, Mr. Swift filed written comments raising the concern that certain aspects of the gravel mining operation could adversely impact water levels and water quality in the fish ponds. In particular, the gravel pit would be dewatered for dry mining, with the potential to draw down the water table on the Swift Property. Also, the gravel pit will be lined with a clay embankment as a component of the reclamation plan, which could interrupt ground water flows to the Swift Property. In order to allow the gravel mining operation to proceed while protecting the quality of the fish ponds, monitoring, mitigation, and contingency plans were developed and incorporated into the mined land reclamation permit for the Timnath Connell Pit. The Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) reviewed these plans and procedures as technical revision TR-Ol to the permit that was approved on March 16, 2000. Mining and dewatering of the Timnath Connell Pit commenced during year 2000, and the monitoring requirements described in TR-Ol were implemented. On July 5, 2000 the DMG received a copy of a letter dated July 2, 2001 and addressed to Will Welch of Connell Resources from Louis Swift. The letter states that low water, low oxygen, and warm water were killing fish in the Swift Ponds. The letter further states that Mr. Swift planned to immediately start pumping cooler water from Willow Pond to Big Brother Pond (see attached sketch for orientation). Ample water was available in Willow Pond because flows from the Timnath Connell Pit dewatering operations could be routed through the temporary sediment pond and into a culvert under County Road 36 (CR 36) discharging directly to Willow Pond. Routing water pumped from the pit into the CR 36 culvert and onto Mr. Swift's property is a component of the mitigation plan approved in TR-O1. A basis for this part of the mitigation plan was an assumption that the berms between the various ponds on the Swift property would be rapidly permeable, and that by topping off Willow Pond, the rest of the ponds would level off at the same water surface elevation. The observations that the water surface elevation in Big Brother was significantly lower than the water surface elevation in Willow Pond during summer 2001 indicates that no rapidly permeable hydrogeologic interconnection was functioning. In order to equilibrate the two pond surfaces Mr. Swift installed a culvert with incorporated fish filter. The culvert installation was inspected by the DMG on 8-27-01, and although the pond surface elevations between Big Brother and Willow Ponds had not fully equilibrated by that date, Mr. John Andrew, consultant to Mr. Swift, reported that the surface of Big Brother had come up significantly since the culvert installation had been completed. The fish filter is integral to the correct operation of Swift Ponds, since the various ponds are maintained to provide habitat for various