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Geof Schlittgen <br />10007 County Road 250 <br />Durango, Colorado 81301 <br />DEN1fER <br />OFFICE <br />Army Corps of Engineers <br />Attention: Sue Nall <br />402 Rood Ave., Rm. 142 <br />Grand Junction, Colorado 81501 <br />Rec~'~~'d <br />A1JG ~ 3 <br />November 1, 1995 <br />dur2n!t~ F'w:~ Cttice <br />Dear Sue, <br />Thank you very much for the time you spent with me on the phone recentl~~ explaining <br />the review process for aggregate operations in the Animas River. I am spacifically <br />concerned with the activities of the Animas Aggregates operation off Hi3hway 550 <br />north of Durango. <br />I moved onto a property across the river from the Animas Aggregates pit in 1978. In <br />1980 I purchased and moved onto another property 1/2 mile north of the pit and in <br />1992 I purchased and moved onto my current property about 1l2 mile soutf'~ of the pit. <br />Over the years I have been witness to the results of of the changes to the river resulting <br />from the removal of aggregate and other activities by Animas Aggregates. I vratched as <br />the level of the river bottom directly up stream of the pit dropped and the banks <br />gradually became higher. Spring run-off waters do not generate enough aggregate to <br />replenish what has been removed from tha plt in the previous season so the mining <br />operation has actually been removing gravel from the upstream property owners land <br />which sloughs oft downstream into the pit created by the prior seasons minin3. <br />The purchase of my property includes .5 c.f.s. of water from the Wallace Ditch, priority <br />A3, appropriation date 1/1/1876, decree date 1 1 1811 923. Thera are sevE~ral other <br />property owners with water rights on the same ditch who are as concerned as I am. <br />The water no longer flows in this ditch, as it did for over 100 years, as a result of <br />Animas Aggregates mining activity. I sa~,v from 1978 until the early 80's how the river <br />level dropped and the course was altered as a result of all the aggregate extraction in <br />the immediate downstream vicinity from the origin of the eastern channel of the river <br />which supplied the Wallace Ditch headgate.. Tom Talley who owned all the former <br />Wallace Ranch, which was serviced by irrigation water from the Wallace Ditch <br />referenced above, had to take a backhoe every year to that point on the river where <br />that eastern most arm of the river which supplied avatar to the N/allace Ditch head gate <br />left the main channel in order to construct a small diversion dike to insure that the <br />water could get up to the level of that eastern most channel. This became inc~~easingly <br />