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SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT JUSTIFICATION <br />NOV C-93-042 <br />Notice of Violation C-93-042 was issued for "Failure to perform <br />hydrologic monitoring in accordance with approved permit and <br />regulations". Dan Mathews issued the NOV to Basin Resources Inc. <br />on April 9, 1993 at the New Elk Mine. An assessment conference <br />was originally held on June 17, 1993 to consider this, and <br />several other NOV's. At that time Basin Resources Inc. (BRI) <br />stated they had additional monitoring data that needed to be <br />considered for this NOV and they were planning to send it in. <br />Mr. Mathews agreed to review their information. The missing data <br />was overlooked by BRI and the Division until November, 1993 when <br />the information was submitted. On November 26, 1993 Joe Dudash, <br />of the Division, modified the NOV based on the additional <br />monitoring data submitted by BRI. The amount of missing <br />information was significantly reduced as described in the <br />modified NOV. On March 3, 1994 the conference was reconvened to <br />consider the modified NOV. <br />Ralph Lopez, representing BRI, explained that the data had been <br />on site at the time of the inspection. BRI had completed the <br />monitoring as required by the permit. He stated that blanks in <br />some of the data indicated a lack of flow, not a lack of <br />monitoring as was originally assumed. <br />The proposed civil penalty was: <br />History $50.00 <br />Seriousness $1250.00 <br />Fault $1000.00 <br />Good Faith $0.00 <br />Total $2300.00 <br />Seriousness <br />The NOV was proposed with the assumption that a large amount of <br />the required monitoring did not occur. After a review of the <br />additional data submitted by the operator, the Division modified <br />the NOV. Most of the required monitoring was conducted, but some <br />of the required parameters were missing from several different <br />locations over the course of approximately 10 months. I feel <br />this represents a low/moderate level of seriousness and I am <br />proposing to reduce the seriousness component to $500.00. <br />Fault <br />The penalty was assessed based on failure to monitor. As <br />modified, the Division acknowledged that monitoring was <br />conducted, however several items were missing. Based on the <br />information presented, I propose to reduce the fault from <br />intentional conduct to a high degree of negligence. It is my <br />feeling that BRI was also negligent by not having the monitoring <br />data readily available at the mine site, or someone knowledgeable <br />