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MINE ID # OR PROSPECTI• ID#: M-1996-060 • PAGE: 2 <br />INSPECTION DATE: 12-7-00 INSPECTOR'S INITIALS: ACS <br />OBSERVATIONS <br />The Division of Minerals and Geology is currently reviewing a permit amendment application <br />for the Firestien Pit. Apre-operational inspection of the three parcels to be added to the <br />permit area was conducted. The active permitted area of the Firestien Pit was also <br />inspected. <br />The original permit area of the Firestien Pit is mined out. The Phase 1 pond has been used <br />as a source for wash water. This use will be continued when mining commences in the parcels <br />included in the amendment application. Wash water is pumped to the wash plant via a barge <br />pump, and is recycled to the pond via a channel with a series of settling basins used to <br />clarify the water. The barge pump had recently been removed for storage over the winter. The <br />wash water pond has been sloped along the shoreline to a very shallow angle. Some of the <br />silt deposited along the shoreline has slumped and will require regrading for final <br />reclamation. Wash fines are periodically dredged from the settling basins and dried. This <br />material is then mixed with overburden and used for backfilling and sloping of the mined <br />pits. <br />Firestien Pond 2 is located in the west central portion of the existing permit area. This <br />pond has not yet been graded to reclamation contours. The area to the east of this pond has <br />been backfilled to grade using excess overburden and may be used for future residential <br />development. A small pond has been created in the southwest corner of the original Firestien <br />Pit permit area. A mixture of reclamation styles will be employed in the original Firestien <br />pit area. In addition to the ponds and possible future residential area discussed above, the <br />Operator will create pastureland in the current processing plant site with [he remaining <br />affected land to be reclaimed to wetlands. <br />The Firestien Pit reclamation permit requires the Operator to adhere to a strict schedule for <br />concurrent reclamation in order to assure that adequacy of the reclamation bond amount. The <br />permit limits the acreage of unreclaimed affected land to 26 acres. Considering the rapidity <br />at which the original permit area was mined out, and based on observations made during this <br />inspection, the Operator has done an admirable job of concurrent reclamation. A large <br />percentage of the affected land outside of the aggregate plant site, which is a long-term <br />facility, has been backfilled and graded. Topsoil has been spread in selected areas, and the <br />83`a Avenue frontage has been seeded. Importantly, very few weeds were observed within the <br />permitted area, and no noxious weeds. Hall-Irwin maintains an on-going weed management <br />program at all of their pits and employs a full time weed management person. Weeds have been <br />controlled at the Firestien pit through a combination of mowing and discing. The amendment <br />application continues the requirements for concurrent reclamation, so no change in the <br />reclamation bond amount is indicated (see discussion of reclamation to create a fish farm <br />elsewhere in this report). <br />A concrete batch plant is operating in the permitted facilities area of the Firestien Pit. <br />Cost elements for the removal of the batch plant and other structures in the plant area have <br />been incorporated into the reclamation bond amount. Return concrete is cured at the site and <br />stockpiled to be crushed and recycled into structural fill. The Operator is notified that <br />if any of the return concrete will be backfilled at the site, it must be in a hardened state <br />for a minimum of 60 days to be considered an inert material (Rule 1.1(20) of the Construction <br />Material Rules and Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board). The Operator <br />stated that no demolition debris has been brought back to the Firestien Pit for recycling or <br />disposal as clean backfill. If offsite inert debris will be brought onto the property in the <br />future, the Operator is required to provide notice to the Division of Minerals and Geology <br />in accordance with Rule 3.1.5(9). <br />Topsoil management at the existing Firestien Pit was inspected. There is a large stockpile <br />located in the central permit area that will be used in reclamation of Firestien Pond 2. Low <br />topsoil berms have been constructed along the 83" Avenue frontage and along the river at the <br />