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~, From: Bob Oswald To: Harry Posey Subject: Re: Ute Ule meeting Date: October 25, 2000 Harry -I've been reviewing the file for answers to your questions, and think I can answer some of them. It almost sounds as if part of the federal clean-up efforts could involve surtaces or features in the permitted area. Do I understand this correctly? 1. The sorts of pyritic wastes on the permit area and adjoining areas have not been clearly documented for our files. The area (townsite of Henson) has had at least 3 mills during its 100+ years of activity. Once Lance was going to begin milling the Golden Wonder ore, he was to characterize the ore and pare down the list of chemicals to be used. This has not occurred yet. I'm faxing and mailing a local geologic map, which depicts the geology plus mine features and dumps. The permit area boundary is also sketched on it. Hopefully this will help a bit. Lance performed several quarters of water sampling, and submitted the results. Do we need further sampling, either toward this general area clean-up or toward the EPP on the permit? The permitted area (4 acres) consists of constructed bench terraces, which consist at least partly of country rock, sub-ore, and deposited tailings. The permitted area does not fully occupy some of these benches. Clean-up on the site does not necessarily require full removal of some of the structures. Lance's EPP states that materials at the ore stockpile area will ne neutralized w/ lime and capped. Offsite clean-up, depending on what BLM a!o EPA want, may involve removal or capping of wastes, a/o removal or capping of old structures (such as pads, foundations). There is a lot of old wood cribbing on the permit area, and offsite, including the slope immediately adjacent to the creek. Besides earthwork purely for stabilization needed at the time of reclamation, slope grading is not clearly defined in the reclamation plan. 2. Removal of onsite wastes might infringe on Lance's future activities. His single-celled overflow (tailings disposal) pond is not lined, but is designed to allow percolation of process water, including stormwater. Removal of pond floor material may alter the percolation, and removal of pond berm material will destabilize it or eliminate needed freeboard. He stated that future pond capacity needs may require him to enlarge the pond area (which is presently at the permit edge) onto presently-unpermitted land. He also stated that the existing cell may have to be divided into 2 cells.