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~J <br />Mesa County Commissioners <br />May 11, 1992 <br />Page 2 <br /> <br />According to Albert Buckman, a consultant for the applicant, the concept <br />behind the reclamation plan is for water to move hori2ontally along the <br />Mancos shale to flush into the Colorado Biver. This should keep salts <br />from coming to the surface of the reclaimed area and ruining it for <br />agriculture. However, isn't the flushing of these salts into the river <br />contrary to the Salinity Control Program? <br />Minerals: The State of Colorado and Mesa County classify sand and gravel <br />as valuable minerals. However at least 507 of the material to be moved <br />from this mine is overburden. Overburden is not a valuable mineral. It <br />exists everywhere in the Grand 'Jalley area. While it may be a great deal <br />For this mine operator to be able to sell overburden from this pit as <br />well as sand and gravel, its a terrible deal for the neighbors who have <br />to live with the disturbance. Presently 43 local residences are directly <br />affected by this project. The extra truck traffic and dust associated <br />with hauling overburden is currently over 50% of what is destroying our <br />neighborhood. My neighbors and I strongly object to this. It just is <br />not fair we us to have to live with the disturbance of moving a <br />non-valuable material through our area. Besides, if all the overburden <br />was left in the pit, the reclamation might have a better chance of <br />succeeding or the area could be used for future residential development. <br />Dust: Fugitive dust from this pit is impacting agriculture, is <br />unhealthy, and makes our house difficult to keep clean. While the Grand <br />Valley may generally be a dusty place, having a large point source, open <br />pit nearby just makes the problem worse. It seems like within a day of <br />dusting our house it is dusty again. I have never seen nor heard of any <br />watering at this pit to control dust as required on their permit. These <br />dust control requirements are important. Please remember that we who <br />live here have to .live with the problem 24 hours a day and seven days a <br />week. Unlike the operator, we do not get to go home at the end of the <br />working day and leave the problem behind. <br />Truck_Traffic: Haulage from this pit with large, noisy trucks moving on <br />a narrow street is destroying our neighborhood and the reason we moved to <br />a quite rural area in the first place. There is no way to not be aware <br />of it going on. It is like a large moving van going thru a small <br />subdivision, everyone notices it because it seems so out of place. The <br />truck traffic from this pit can be continuous. Several months ago the <br />operator was running around 100 trucks per day from the pit and it was an <br />outrage. It completely took over the neighborhood. There was no piece <br />and quiet. In the current proposal the applicant requests 120 truck <br />loads per day for 7 days a week, including holidays, from 6 am to 7 pm. <br />Including empty trucks returning to be filled, this equals 240 trucks per <br />day or one truck every 3.5 minutes. And all this disturbance for <br />approximately 15 years. Many of us in the neighborhood will be old or <br />dead before its over. This is ridiculous! Please give us a break and <br />don't allow him to do this. <br />This truck traffic is also dangerous. C Road is a narrow road with no <br />shoulder to get off on. Traffic on C Road includes elderly persons <br />driving cars, school busses, kids on bicycles, joggers, and horseback <br />