PERMFILE63706

• Permit No: M2006046
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 1/3/2007
• Doc Name: Response to 2nd Adequacy Review
• From: Banks and Gesso, LLC
• To: DRMS
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Applicant's Response to Second Adequacy Letter
Grand River Park Project, DRMS File M-2006-046
January 2, 2007
Page 17
To address the specific contingency of groundwater drawdown potential affecting
well viability, the applicant reiterates its commitment to conduct groundwater
monitoring as specified by the Plan referenced under Comment 21d. Key trigger
points and mitigation measures are specifically directed at sensitive wells, as
identified in the Martin & Wood reports.
Ditches, specifically the Rising Sun and Last Chance Ditches adjacent to the
proposed mining operation, are conveyances for already-appropriated,
consumable water rights. As such, the water transported in irrigation ditches is
typically regarded as a commodity in transport and not a hydrologic resource.
The Division is, for example, no doubt aware of long-standing statutory and
judicial authority in the state that accommodates and encourages ditch owners to
improve the efficiency of their conveyances, fix leaks, and profit from reduction in
transport losses. By this reasoning, the applicant assumes that the alleged
"significant, adverse impacts" to ditches cited by the Division are not related to
hydrologic balance but rather must be presumed injuries to property rights
associated with water loss. In this light, it must be noted that the Martin & Wood
groundwater model did not include ditch waters in its "difference" calculation.
While mining-related groundwater drawdown potential may appear to radically
affect ditches, these ditches in fact are already effectively elevated above the
existing groundwater table and already must supply water to saturate their banks,
where the banks are not already impermeable due to siltation. No specific
impact to ditches -significant, adverse, or otherwise - is identified by the
groundwater modeling report. In any event, the property rights contained in ditch
waters are subject to regulatory protection by the State Engineer's Office and the
Division of Water Resources, as well as rights of action in the courts should injury
occur. Please note that the land owner, with accommodation for use by the
applicant/operator, holds substantial interests in the Last Chance Ditch, closest
to mining. As further noted in the attached Martin & Wood adequacy response
letter, recharge facilities will tend to provide a hydraulic break in the vicinity of the
Last Chance Ditch.
Other resources are also protected, through all phases of mining, by the
Groundwater Monitoring Plan (see Comment 21d) and the Water Management
Plan (see Comment 21f, below). The applicant has also obtained a Watershed
Permit from the City of Rifle, and will obtain all other appropriate permits.
However, it bears repeating that the groundwater model renders no predictions
regarding the significance or adversity presented by drawdown potential
respecting any "resource" other than a few registered wells.
While it is plain that natural resources, such as wetlands and riparian vegetation,
may be used as indicators of the hydrologic balance, there is no standard in the
Construction Materials Act or the Rules that specifies the extent to which these
natural resources must, for their own sake, be shielded from any potential
groundwater impact. Rather, when an "operation is expected to directly affect