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INTRODUCTION <br />The Gilsonite Pit, located approximately 2.5 miles northwest of the town of Fruita, Colorado in Mesa <br />County, is located on [he Gilsonite refinery property which has been disturbed by petrochemical <br />operations for many years. The permit area is 69.27 acres and gravel will be mined from an area of <br />approximately 39.7 acres, leaving a lake with wetland areas upon reclamation. In the year 2000, a <br />112 permit application was filed with the DMG (File # M-2000-058). Since the gisonite refinery and <br />associated dump areas, evaporation ponds and other disturbance was part of a compliance order <br />issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, (Compliance Order No. 98- <br />06-05-01), anumber of issues concerning the site required additional investigation and the permit <br />application to the DMG was removed in November of 2000. The application was re-submitted in <br />October of 2002 and after further review and input from a number of agencies, the application was <br />revised again in May of 2003. Due to ongoing concerns about contamination and water handling, the <br />application was again revised in late September and early October of 2003. <br />During October of 2003 the possibility of turning the entire jurisdiction of the permit to the <br />CDPHE was discussed and was presented to the CDMG Board in November of 2003. The <br />Board rejected the delivery of all responsibility to CDPHE but through a Memorandum of <br />Understanding issued on November 28, 2003, the CDPHE became responsible for ali <br />contamination issues. This MOU is shown in Appendix E of this document. The MOU shows <br />that the monitoring of contaminants, the potential use of the trench to mitigate contaminant <br />movement, any and all precautionary measures to address contaminant handling, overburden <br />farming and water testing are under the regulation of the CDPHE, not the CDMG. This <br />document discusses and shows some mitigation measures (such as the trench) but these are <br />simply optional measures that mayor may not be required. <br />All issues concerning the CDPHE Compliance Order, contamination, discharge, waste handling, etc. <br />have been resolved as the result of significant inter-agency negotiation. The CDPHE has divided the <br />site into 3 areas: Subareas 1, 2 and 3. Subareas 1 and 3 are approved for mining at this time (May <br />2003). Subarea 2 has old evaporation ponds from the old refinery operation that had some petroleum <br />Gilsonite Pit 1/04 <br />