INSPEC45772 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

III. Comments/Compliance This was a complete inspection conducted by Jim Burnell of CDMG on Thursday, September 22, and Friday, September 23, 2005. Weather was cloudy and windy. The mine site was quiet. The road to the mine site was in good condition. The gate was locked and secure and the sign correct. The Pit 1 area in the north area of the mine showed good revegetation -tall wheatgrass, now brown, with many seed heads. There was also a great deal of sagebrush with the grass. There was no sign of instability or erosion on the slopes. At the facilities area, the building was secure. There was scattered vegetation around the facilities area pad, mainly Basin wild rye, squirreltail grass, western wheatgrass and some crested wheatgrass. Canada thistle was scattered around the pad with a large patch on the south side of the facilities pad. The pad and embankments were mostly stable with some incipient erosion on the slope at the south side of the pad. The 720 area showed excellent revegetation, dominated by sagebrush and western wheatgrass. There was some minor erosion along the south-facing slope of the hill above Pond A, with repair to the contour furrows on the slope. There were scattered patches of Canada thistle. The low area upstream of Pond A was well-vegetated, dominated by Indian rice grass with brome and western wheatgrass. Ditch PD-1 over most of its length was avaguely-defined channelway with no erosion and vegetation as dense as the surrounding terrain. On the steep slope at the top end of the ditch, there has been some minor erosion and rip rap has been applied to those spots. In the PD-4 ditch there has been some erosion above the rip rap in the channel. At the ditch on the east side of the entrance road (ditch PD-4) there was some erosion in the area of the double culverts. There was rip-rap in the channel, but the channel should be armored using a range of sizes of rip-rap (not just large size rocks) to prevent erosion. Some erosion was also beginning in the ditch above Pond D. The same attention should be paid to this ditch. There was a good bit of water in Pond A, 5 feet below the emergency discharge level. The embankment was stable. Pond B also contained water, 3' below the discharge level with some slight seepage at the outlet. Willows are present in the backwater area of the pond, along with Basin wild rye and squirreltail grass in addition to the abundant wheatgrass. An infestation of Canada thistle is developing in the dry area behind the pond. This should be sprayed. There is a willow growing in the emergency discharge channel. The area uphill from Pond B, reseeded in 1999, shows excellent revegetation -mostly tall stands of wheatgrass with large wild rye clusters. Pond C contained a small amount of water. The dam was stable. The ditch upstream of Pond D has some fresh rip rap in it. The water in the pond was slightly turbid at a level 7' below discharge. The dam itself was stable and vegetated with western wheatgrass.