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1.0 <br />The Hazeltine sand and gravel resource is located approximately three miles south of the Town of <br />Henderson in the south half of Section 9, Township 2 South, Range 67 West in Adams County, <br />Colorado. As shown in Figure 1, the site is bordered by 104th Avenue on the south, Brighton Road on <br />the east, the South Platte River on the west, and the existing Howe-Haller gravel mine on the north. <br />Aggregate Industries-WCR, Inc. plans to install aloes-permeability clay slurry wall, keyed to bedrock, <br />around the primary mining area at the Hazeltine site. The slurry wall will both reduce the need for <br />dewatering during mining and will provide a flow bamer so that the excavation area can be used as a <br />lined water storage reservoir after mining. A small area on the east side of the property outside the <br />slurry wall is also proposed for mining. The east mine cell will be dewatered during mining and then <br />backfilled with unmarketable fine-grained material. <br />This report presents the results of a groundwater modeling investigation of the Hazeltine site conducted <br />by Tetra Tech RMC. The model was developed to simulate the alluvial aquifer in the South Platte <br />Valley in the vicinity of the Hazeltine mine excavation as well as other nearby and lined and unlined <br />reservoirs constructed by others. The model was used to estimate relative effects on groundwater levels <br />due to construction of the slurry wall around the primary Hazeltine extraction area and dewatering of the <br />east side extraction area. The effects simulated by the model represent the estimated additive effects of <br />the Hazeltine site when considered in conjunction with current lined water storage areas created by <br />others upstream and downstream of the site from sand and gravel excavations. <br />2.0 MODEL DEVELOPMENT <br />Described in this section are the basic framework for how the model was constructed, how geologic and <br />hydrologic features were represented in the model, and the basis for assignment of aquifer parameters <br />and other hydrologic factors in the model. As needed, final aquifer parameters and hydrologic factors <br />were derived during the calibration phase (Section 3.2). <br />General hydrological data were obtained from the Groundwater Atlas of Colorado (Topper, et al., 2003), <br />Robson (1996), and our experience with similar projects in the area. Well water level information was <br />taken from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal well database (transmitted from the Department of Army on <br />October 15 and 22, 2003), existing wells on the property just south of this site, wells along the Fulton <br />Ditch, and monitoring wells installed by Tetra Tech RMC in 2004. <br />2.1 Model Framework <br />A numerical groundwater mode] was used for the study because such a model can simulate: 1) the <br />alluvial groundwater system taking into account variable aquifer properties and hydrologic stresses; 2) <br />hydrologic influences of the South Platte River and seepage from or to ditches, creeks, and ponds; and <br />3) variable recharge from precipitation and irrigation. Also, this type of model can simulate the <br />positioning of the lined reservoirs in relation to the direction of groundwater flow and groundwater <br />sources/sinks, which is critical to assess the degree of effects on groundwater levels. <br />The U.S. Geologic Survey's modular finite-difference groundwater flow code, MODFLOW (McDonald <br />and Harbaugh, 1988), was used for the modeling study. The mode] was developed using the pre- and <br />post-processing software Groundwater Vistas, version 4.08 (Environmental Simulations, Inc., 2004). <br />The model encompasses an approximate eight square mile area around the Hazeltine site (Figure 1). A <br />finite-difference grid containing 110 rows and 91 columns was used to model the area. Grid cell <br />- 1 - July 2004 <br />I V919_01 %\GW ModeNtcpottVGZeltine_Rpt_] 2].doc <br />