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1.0 INTRODUCTION <br />The Gardels Pit is proposed to occur adjacent to the City of Loveland <br />Wastewater Treatment Plant (LWWTP) located at 980 S. Boise Avenue. Coulson <br />Excavating Co., Inc. (Coulson) will be the pit operator and McWhinney Property <br />Group LLC is the current land owner. <br />In an initial conversation with the City of Loveland Department of Water and <br />Power, concems regarding the gravel operations effects on the local <br />groundwater table were expressed. Specifically, Steven Birdsall of the City of <br />Loveland Department of Water and Power expressed concerns regarding any <br />increase in water table elevations in the area of the LWWTP. Mr. Birdsall went on <br />to say that they already have some problem with seepage from the Greeley <br />Loveland Canal north of the plant and any further increase in water table <br />elevations would be unwelcome. This study has been developed to address <br />these concerns. The reclamation plan has been designed to reduce the potential <br />for any increase in local groundwater table elevations in the area of the LWWTP <br />resulting from the reclamation (post mining) land configuration. <br />The Gardels Pit will mine gravel below the natural water table. The operation will <br />utilize dry mining techniques and will trench the perimeter of the pit and pump <br />from the trenches to dewater the gravel within the pit area. Dry mined pits will <br />create a cone of depression locally during operation. This study utilizes the <br />digital program MODFLOW, which is a three dimensional digital finite difference <br />approximation to the governing equation of groundwater flow. <br />MODFLOW is used as a predictive tool to approximate the potential influence the <br />dewatering operation and the reclamation land configuration may have on the <br />local water table. <br />Reclamation proposes to backfill approximately 1/3rd of the mined out west pit <br />with the native overburden materials onsite (primarily silty sand) and leave the <br />western 2/3rds as a groundwater fed lake. Coulson has entered into a long term <br />lease for fully consumable City of Loveland Sewage Effluent that will be used to <br />augment post mining evaporative losses and offset any injury to the Big <br />Thompson River. <br />Gardels Pit <br />Revised Groundwater Modeling Report <br />1 of 9 <br />