PERMFILE46869

• Permit No: M1979097
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 5/22/1979
• Doc Name: REGULAR 112 PERMIT APPLICATION FORM
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Reclamation will restore Colorado sand and gravel
area to the environment of 100 years ago
Flatiron invests $250,000
to satisfy environmentalists
prior to mining
by Joseph L. Robertson
Take a rare fern, add five species of
rare bees and ants and mix with 20
groups ofenvironment-minded citizens
and you end up with an expenditure of
$250,000 before you've mined the first
ton of gravel. That was the experience
of the Flatiron Companies, a group of
affiliated companies providing sand
and gravel-based construction and
material services in Boulder, Colo.
In order to exploit a sand and gravel
deposit near the White Rocks cliffs east
of Boulder, Flatiron spent approxi-
mately $100,000 for design and ap-
provalexpenses and another $150,000
for reclamation and monitoring.
These expenditures were necessary to
satisfy the environmentalist's demands
for a reclamation program to protect
and preserve the Bora and fauna in the
White Rocks area. As a result, at the
end of the company's 10-year mining
schedule, the 300-acre site, now graz-
ing and farm land, will closely approx-
imate the environment as it was over
100 years ago.
The White Rocks, an area east of the
City of Boulder along Boulder Creek,
are a sandstone formation unique to
Boulder and by themselves are not an
economical mining resource. They con-
tain arare fern, the Asplenium, not
presently found elsewhere in the U. S.,
plus five rare species of bets and ants,
barn owls and other plants and animals
not often found in the area.
However, the Boodplain south of
Boulder Creek, which inns near the
base of the cliffs, is a continuation of
streambed gravel reserves mined by
Flatiron for the past ?5 years and were
the next logical site for a major mining
operation. The close proximity of the
gravel to the Whitt Rocks cliffs pre-
seined environmemal problems never
before faced by the company. The cliffs
had been studied extensively for many
years by professors and students at the
University of Colorado and were offi-
ciallydesignated as one of the six most
important natural areas in the county by
the same County Commissioners who
were later to be asked to grant permis-
sion For mining.
The Boulder valley area does not
have unlimited gravel supplies and well
over half of the streambed gravels in the
area have been lost by building on top
of the reserves. The only sources for
gravel are the streambed deposits now
being mined, some upland deposits
which present substantial processing
problems and are of low yuality, or.
quarrying in the mountains west of the
city which would result in traffic and
hauling problems.
The streambed deposits are high
yuality and are suitable for concrete.
asphah and road bast aggregates with-
out significaru processing problems.
However, these deposits are shallow,
12 fl or less, and are covered by from
one to five feet of overburden. Al-
though protective legislation was en-
acted, Flatiron's vice president and re-
sources manager Ed McDowell claims
the Boulder area is a few decades from
streambed depletion.
Land acquisition was only the first of
along series of problems for the com-
pany. The next farm west of the cliffs
which seemed to be the best to mine,
was owneJ by as ardent enviromnen-
talist who was unaherably opposed to
gravel mining in the area. The property
directly east of this environmentalist's
Reprinted from May 1976 ROCK PRODUCTS
Cottonwood trees and native grasses border one of the first of seven lakes formed by mining.
White Rocks clMS can be seen in the censer background.