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INTRODUCTION The North Fork Pit is to be a small wet sand and gravel operation to mine no more than 255,000 total tons from a total permit area of 9.97 acres, creating a lake of 6.6 acres along the first terrace of the North Fork of the Gunnison River. The area is a flat meadow immediately south of the River immediately downstream and west of the town of Paonia in Delta County. The North Fork Pit permit land is on a private parcel owned by Cecil and Patricia Farnsworth who have leased the land and water rights to United Companies for the sand and gravel mining. Cecil and Patricia Farnsworth have operated two river harvesting 110 gravel pits very close to the proposed permit area. One is known as the Famsworth Gravel Pit #2 (M-1982-154) and is permitted immediately east of the proposed site and the other is known as the River Bottom Pit (M-1992-100) which was permitted under the River Bottom Land Corporation on the Famsworth property. Delta County has already approved the proposed operation for the creation of the lake on the Farnsworth property as an extension of the permit for the Farnsworth #2 Gravel pit. Delta County specified that the total production from the original Farnsworth #2 Gravel Pit and the new operation could not exceed 70,000 tons per year. For this reason, the United lease with Farnsworth specifies that Farnsworth cannot mine any material for the time that United is mining the North Fork Pit (a maximum of 4 yeazs). This condition is also a stipulation of this permit. Extracted material from this wet pit would be transported across a small bridge only during low water conditions to the processing area of the River Bottom Pit. The final products would then be taken to market from the existing Farnsworth entrance along Highway 133. The gravel is approximately 24 feet thick below a layer of topsoil of 3"-12" thickness. The current land use is irrigated field and dryland range but the post-mining use be a) wetlands for wildlife habitat and b) lake for wildlife habitat and recreation. The final lake will aRer mining only be 6.6 acres in size and can be mined without damage to the environment or threat of capture by the river at a later date. We also believe the site provides a local strategic supply of building materials in an area that is seriously low on future gravel reserves. Final reclamation will also be done promptly a$er mining is completed. United will work with the County, the landowner, CDMG, the CDOW and COE to ensure that the final reclamation is the best possible for all parties. This document is also being supplied to Delta County, the North Fork River Improvement Associa- tion, the Corps of Engineers and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. All references to United Companies in this application should be taken to mean Oldcastle SW Group, Inc. Dba United Companies of Mesa County, which is the true permittee. North Fork Pit Mazch 04