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Memo to File M-81-302 -8- June 5 . 1997 <br /> Additional comments by the City of Boulder in their 4/22/97 <br /> correspondence include : <br /> . . .the City of Boulder and Boulder County have continued to <br /> express opposition to establishment of a permanent flood <br /> protection levee on the Deepe Farm Pit mining site without <br /> exhaustive consideration of all possible alternatives to a <br /> levee system. To this end, the City of Boulder requests that <br /> the DMG refrain from adopting the proposed reclamation plan <br /> amendment for the Deepe Farm Pit until there is a final <br /> determination of the appropriate flood mitigation measures for <br /> the area. <br /> By suggesting that the Division require an exhaustive consideration <br /> of all possible alternatives to a levee system, the City of Boulder <br /> is, in effect, requesting that the Division make a suitability <br /> determination. There is no statutory or regulatory justification <br /> for making suitability determinations at construction materials <br /> sites . The Division can review plans that are developed by <br /> operators or applicants, and can approve, deny, or require <br /> modifications to those plans, but the Division cannot require an <br /> operator or applicant to consider alternative plans. The Division <br /> is required to approve reclamation plans proposed by applicants or <br /> operators, and the approvals must be issued within specific time <br /> lines, unless one or more grounds for denial exist . The grounds <br /> for denial are listed in section 34-32 .5-115 (4) , C.R.S. Based on <br /> an evaluation of the floodplain information that has been available <br /> to the Division up to this point, no grounds for denial of the <br /> operator' s levee proposal are present . However, final <br /> determinations regarding the levee proposal cannot be made until <br /> the operator responds to the Division' s adequacy review for <br /> technical revision TR-006, the levee proposal technical revision. <br /> Land Grades <br /> Quotes pertinent to the City of Boulder' s concerns in this regard, <br /> from the letter dated 4/22/97: <br /> . . . significantly lower grade of the mined site than in <br /> previously approved reclamation plans. These lower grades <br /> have created the potential to divert and redirect floodwaters <br /> from South Boulder Creek to the north. <br /> The land grades that the City of Boulder is concerned with are <br /> inside the existing levee . The currently accepted delineation of <br /> the, one percent annual chance floodplain along South Boulder Creek <br /> excludes the land inside the levee from the floodplain. If the <br /> land inside the levee is not in the floodplain, there is no <br /> potential for the land grades inside the levee to affect flood <br /> flows resulting from a one percent annual chance flood. The <br />