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x <br />4. Synopsis of trip: John Ozga and Bob Major traveled to Bowie Colorado area <br />arriving around 10:30am. We met with Merritt Denison and Trey Denison with <br />BiII Bear arriving a little while later. We all looked at the settling pond <br />(designated Pond B) from the "old" highway 133 (Photos #1-4) and then the west <br />inflow channel above (Photos #5 & 6) and below the highway (Photo #1). We <br />then walked over to the south (downhill) berm of Pond B which has an. <br />unregulated overFlow spillway (Photo #2) and a discharge pipe with a valve <br />(Photos #14 & 15) that both discharge flows onto the slope and then into the <br />privately owned Deer Trail Ditch (Ditch). Bill Bear indicated that the mine had a <br />"permit" from the State to discharge the flows into the Ditch. The Ditch diverts <br />water from Hubbard Creek and Bowie Resources uses most of the water in the <br />Ditch by pumping the water to wherever it's needed. The Ditch parallels the FMC <br />on the uphill side for the whole distance in the area we looked at and appears to <br />be of limited capacity, probably around a maximum of 5 cfs in this area, if that. <br />We then looked at the Ditch and noticed a hole (probably animal) in the bottom <br />downstream of where the pond discharges into the Ditch. This hole had a pile of <br />rocks that appeared to be placed in the bottom of the Ditch (Photo #16) on the <br />downstream side of the hole, and water entering the hole would discharge into <br />the FMC near the high water mark. This hole would probably take most of the <br />water that the pond discharge pipe would put into the Ditch and put it into the <br />FMC. The Ditch downstream of this area was choked with brush, trees and other <br />vegetation that would restrict flows in the Ditch to the overshot pipe (Photo #17) <br />that takes the flows to the downhill side of the FMC, and is apparently the end of <br />the Ditch. Merritt reported that there have been essentially no flows through this <br />overshot pipe for years. <br />Next, we walked along the Ditch upstream to an area where a cmp can discharge <br />water from the Ditch into the FMC and where a PVC pipe can carry water across <br />the FMC (Photo #18). Another pipe crosses the FMC carrying water from the <br />Ditch to irrigate orchards below the FMC (Photo #19) and also has a "Y" that can <br />discharge water into the FMC (Photo #20). This second pipe is located upstream <br />of a bridge across the FMC and was installed by Bowie Resources within the last <br />week or so. <br />The east inflow channel (Photo #1) to Pond B has a couple sources of water. <br />The water is collected at several points on the north side of the highway (Photo <br />#8) and eventually sent under the highway to the east inlet channel. Some of the <br />water is runoff from the east side of the coal loading area (Photos #g, 10 & 11). <br />Some water discharges from a culvert that comes from the east side of the road <br />to the Bowie Resources operations area (Photos #12 & 13) with minor flows from <br />drains on ventilation tunnels (Photo #7) and from runoff from the highway. <br />The last area looked at was a discharge channel for another pond (designation <br />unknown) east of the area already covered, north of the "old" highway 133 but <br />west of the old power plant. This drainage parallels along the north side of the <br />2 <br />