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Page 3 COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, Water Quality Control Division Rationale -Page 34 Permlt No. CO-0045675 Vlll. CHANGES TO PERMIT AND RATIONALE FOLLOWING PUBLIC NOTICE First Public Notice Period, Comment Letters and Public Meeting: (Cont.): Responses to First Pu611c Meeting and Comment Letters General Comments: Commentors at the public meeting had multiple questions regarding allowing Battle Mountain t~ discharge by virtue ofissuing the permrt. There appeared to be some misunderstanding regarding the responsibilities: of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment with respect to issuing the permit. There weru also mane comments about the Colorado Department of Natural Resources mining permit (or the original operation. Many o(thrr commentors suggested that the CDPHE permit should not be issued. Response: The Colorado Water Quality Control Act (C WQCA) is the governing law for industhaland/or municipal discharge(s) to surface waters and to alluvial groundwater that Bows to the surface wafer. The C WQCA roquires that every discharge to state waters (which includes groundwater and surtace water) must have a permit to regulate the quality o(each discharge. In the case of direct discharge to surface water, the permit is issued by the CDPHE. In the case ~~( groundwater, the permft is issued by the implementing agency with primary authority of the facility. In this case, the implementing agency for discharges to groundwater is the Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) in the Colorado Department o(Naturel Resources. It is important to describe the interagency obligations between the CDPHE and the DMG. The DMG has an obligation under its authority to require the mining company to monitor and control discharges to the groundwater. Within the CWQCA, there is a provision pertaining to the issue of permitting jurisdiction. The provision was included in legislation and is referred to as Senate Bill (SB) 181. In SB 181, the state legislature required that two state agencies with overlapping jursdicton must coordinate to eliminate the potential (or dual permds. Further, it requires the implementing agency to issue groundwater discharge permits that meet the substanb've requirements o(the CWOCA. That is to protect the water qualify. One of the important features of this act is that unpermitted discharges must either cease or be permitted. When Battle Mountain notified CDPHE that there was a surface water discharge from the West Pit, the notiftcation was for the seeps that were flowing to the surtace water, not for the discharge to groundwater. The CDPHE issued a Cease and Desist Order which required Battle Mountain to do whatever was necessary to stop the discharge as well as requirtng the company to apply for a discharge permit. The seeps were emanating from a part of the facility that did not include any milling or benehciation operations and did no[ include any waste from those processes. In fact, the seeps were a result of the naturally-occurring groundwater Bowing through the waste rock in the bac/,illed West Pit. The only technically feasible way to eliminate the seeps was to pump the water out o1 the ground before rt reached the Rico Seco. Once pumping began, the water then had to tie managed. There was no alternative for managing the water but to discharge rt to the creek after going through a mechanicaVchemical treatment process. Battle Mountain's original permit application included a request to permit Discharge Point 001 (DP001), which is the discharge from the treatment plant after treatment. The original draft permit for the facility imposed effluent limbs on the discharge from the treatment plant which are more strict than those required for publicly-owned treatment works in the San Luis Valley. Spec~cally, the permit is written so that the resulting ef8uenf /tom DP001 does not degrade the quality o(the water in the Rito Seco based on data from poor to the initiation of mining opereb'ons by BMRI. This policy, at the state and federal level, is the Antidegreda6on Policy and is rigorously followed by the WQCD in issuing permits. With respect to Discharge Point 002 (OP002J, Battle Mountain's permit application requested a permit for the seepage front because there was in fact a discharge to surface water. However, the intent of the water management program outlined in the permit application was to eliminate the discharge to the Rito Seco. In the course of wrib'ng the permit, the response actions initiated by Battle Mountain had the predicted eRect, which was to eliminate the surface seeps. DP001 became the primary management nexus (or the wafer. The commentors noted that the OP002 was not clearly described, and that CDPHE did not propose any controls for the discharges associated with DP002. In the permit application, DP002 was characterized as a seepage front. Al that Ume, the seepage front had a groundwater component and a surtace water component. With the elimination o/the seeps to surface water, the controling permit for DP002 is the permit issued 6y DMG. DMG has, as part of its permit, a groundwater compliance point, at which the eHecl o/the discharge on the groundwater is monitored. The DMG permit requires on-the-ground responses to remedy the impacts, if found. In order for Battle Mountain to comply with the terms o(the DMG permit, the company designed and implemented a program, identified in Technical Revision 26 (TR-026). This document is a condition o(the DMG permit and forms the basis for' remedial actions including the responses that Battle Mountain has implemented as ofthis date. The primary response action (or protection of groundwater and surface water was designed and evaluated in TR-026. Both agencies have reviewed TR-026 and determined that the response, along with treatment o/the discharge through DP001 is a complete and technically appropriate program that meets the objectives o/protecting the Rito Seco and the public health. Although this is an exVemely complicated issue, the agencies have coordinated permits throughout the process and find that the combination of controlling the outflow through a series of pumping wells, treating the water to remove the