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<br />~~~ II~'I~I~~II~~I~~ <br />July 27, 1992 <br />Mr. Mike Long, Director <br />Mined Land Reclamation Division <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />1313 Sherman Street, Rm 215 <br />Denver Colorado, 80203 <br />RE: Informal Conference; Parkerson Construction Co.; De Vries Gravel Pit (31 1/2 <br />Road) - Permit No. M-87-178; 32 Road Pit - Permit No. M-85-219 <br />Dear Mr. Long: <br />One of the few remaining pristine rural areas of Western Colorado is Mesa <br />County's fruitlands. One of the larger renowned areas is "Orchard Mesa". <br />Although having been recognized as a prime contributor to Mesa County's <br />economy, Orchard Mesa is continually under attack from outside interests bent <br />on destroying the area for self serving reasons. Today, in about two hours, <br />one can tour these fruit ]ands and see fruit picking, packaging and marketing. <br />One grower is Mr. Ronald Cris t. Ron 's Orchard Mesa "home place" orchard <br />joins Parkerson Construction's 3219 C 1/2 Road gravel pit. Irrigation water <br />for this orchard is provided by Orchard Mesa Irrigation District. The <br />wastewater Parkerson filed for this year mostiy comes Ron 's orchard. He is <br />taxed by the District for irrigation water according to acreage. Parkerson 's <br />land is outside of the District and he does not pay any taxes. <br />Mr. Crist's soul income source is fruit production. It is widely known <br />that because of weather conditions, Ron has loss his crop to frost or freeze <br />the past three years. During June of 1992, his crop was again damaged by haii, <br />causing substantial cullage. <br />Parkerson Construction's business is the sale of roadbase gravel. He has <br />no permits to remove overburden material. Most of the material removed from <br />this pit has been sold to Mesa County, the Bureau of Reclamation and the <br />Department of Energy. During this month of July he has sold huge quantities of <br />unweighed materials to the DOE for the City of Grand Junction's Confluence Park <br />milltailings removal. <br />Mr. Crist leases an apple orchard along Parkerson 's 31 1/2 Road Pit where <br />dust from haul trucks annually destroy part of the crop. According to Court <br />records, Parkerson has settled with Mr. Crist for crop loss due to dust at this <br />orchard. <br />Mesa County operates a gravel pit about a mile east of the intersection of <br />34 and C Roads. The haul road for that pit travels to the south of another <br />apple orchard located in the northeast corner of that intersection. For <br />several years, and until this year Ron ]eased that orchard. This year he was <br />forced to to terminate the ]ease because of dust damage caused by Mesa County <br />Road Department haul trucks. While not the subject of this letter, no records <br />have been found showing the county has mining reclamation, emmissions or <br />conditional use permits. Does your office have a record the county has a' <br />permit to mine gravel? Mined Land Reclamation has closed a gravel pit located <br />-1- <br />