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rrom:, nrnaa ~. aeiam ia: rvc ~n ~acasm w.~. ,. ~.. ~.~o ~~~~~. ... , ... ~./~ Mr. Larry Shults April 15, 1999 Page 2 Board of County Commissioners. The following account comes from a newspaper article published on Wednesday, April 14 in theCiti¢enTelegrarn: In a letter to the county planning department, dated Match 8, American Soda acknowledged that some of the data appeaz to be anomalous, and that the reasons for the anomalies are unknown. The company proposed to have an EPA-certified lab conduct water quality analysis, to establish and follow standardized sampling procedures and protocols, and to compile a database of existing water quality data for the Piceance Creek basin to use in evaluating site-specific data. However, I attended that meeting and was astounded to hear Mike Heidy, identified as American Soda's groundwater expert, assert that he believes the data still support the conclusion that the water in the lower aquifer is not potable! Kurt Nelsen also made that assertion after his presentation identfied only the Upper Aquifer as potable. I have had an opportunity to briefly review the report underlying the DEIS regarding American Soda's moniioring well 20-1 (p. 3-21). "***[C]oncentrations of chloride (1,047 to 27,400)***" This number is patent nonsense, if not worse. The table of data from which this figure was derived showed about a dozen other readings, none of them in excess of 1,(147 and all of them (with the exception of one reading of 1,047) being less than 100. The assertions of r nitrate (25 mg/l) and zinc (7.992 to 8.568) are likewise malodorous bovine byproduct, which is to say politely, "anomalous" or in convict with all other available USGS data. American Soda's offer to establish a baseline in lieu ofihis data is oat paA of the record available for review nor was it part of the record at the meeting as best I can recall that four hour meeting before the Rio Blanco commissioners. The applicant submitted a "Groundwater and Surface Monitoring Plan" dated April 8, 1999 but that plan has not been cited in [he DEIS and was not available prior to the meeting. It purports to create baseline data in conjunction with the operation and monitoring of the operation of the mines. Moreover, while American Soda appears to acknowledge the inadequacy of the baseline data, it doesn't preclude American Soda from later asserting that the Lower Aquifer was not potable and therefore not damaged by spills or leaks Thai may occur. It is important to note that the project proponent American Soda, has admitted, in public, that the EIS does not canply with NEPA and has proposed to create baseline data to remedy one ofthe deficiencies identified by the EPA with its rating Baseline data is not a minor aspect of an EIS; it is one of the foundations. Without sound baseline data, the usefulness of the entire document is in question.