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TfN CobrWO tpMp~ tiun, OefobR-l, rD77 Fror~~~t Range r~off~' decried THE EDITOR: If the sight of Castle Concrete's three quarry opera- tions on our Colorado Springs mountainsides makes you sick, now is the time for action, iF you don't want to get sicker. This enterprising mining company is cuaently requesting permission to continue and expand its quarry- ing activities at all three locations. Castle is having trouble with its permit application forms, but they'll certainly reapply. Castle wants to expand the original Queen's Canon site and work it until the year 1986, the Black Conan (Snyder) quarry until the year 2017, and the Lennoa- Breed (t?ikeview) quarry tp the distant year of 2032. Castle offers high-sounding plans for reclamation of the ]and, but its track rernrd over the last 20 yeazs hasn't been very good. The company suggests that it will reclaim the precipitous AFA site as an industrial park, the t n's Canon "scaz on the mountain" as a wildlife preserve, and the Black Canon/Manitou site as a park and lake by 2032. There won't be many of us around by the third decade in the 21st century to see these plans to fruition. In fact there won't be many of Castle's own senior per;onnel, daring and doing, at that late date. There are some of us who remember Castle's promive~ in 1956. Castle's quarry manager assured the put;lic that Castle would not intrude on the beauty of Queen's Canon. Irritated by the persistent questioning of local citizens, he said, "They have our word on that. What more do they want?" We remember two other verbal promises. One in the mid-sixties that Castle would be finished working the Queen's site in 1868 or 1969, and then another in 1970, that the Black Canon quarry would be screened with a 50-Eoot- high berm, rnvered with green plant materials. This earth mound would make the mining activity disappeaz from sight. But promises, promises. If we hope to slow this continuing depredation, we must write letters of objer lion to the Mined Land Reclamation Board, 1313 Sherman St., Denver, 80203, asking the board to esamine closely Castle's ability to "grade the quarry ]and to create a final topography appropriate to final land use, to revegetatewith along-lasting cover," to "dispose of acid- forming materials" and to protect people below from drainage damage. These are the criteria on which the Reclamation Board must decide on Castle's application for permits. Write a letter now, and if you don't eapeM to be around in 20.92, get your children and grandcbildt® interested in this issue. Colorado Springs is going to need all the help it can get. Lorraine Burgess Qty