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Mr. William C. York-Feirn 3 <br /> Cash mine portal. Many of these drain directly into Cash Gulch during the Spring and early <br /> Summer months. No water has drained from the Cash mine directly into Cash Gulch since the <br /> mine was rehabilitated below the first level in 1983. The water contained in the upper levels <br /> of the Cash mine is of a higher quality than the mine waters draining from these other caved <br /> portals where the air-water interface is causing acidic mine waters to enter Cash Gulch. <br /> In April of this year, my Boulder attorney, Mr. John Henderson, and I had a discussion <br /> with Mr. Thomas Trask, who lives in Summerville and is Mr. Freirich's landlord. When <br /> asked specifically by us about Mr. Freirich's allegations of multiple events of large volumes of <br /> unexplained water flowing through Summerville, Mr. Trask indicated that he was only aware <br /> of the single October 25, 1991, event. Other long-time residents of Summerville have told me <br /> that they did not know of any large volumes of unexplained water flowing through <br /> Summerville during the last four years. <br /> As we are all aware, an accidental discharge of Cash mine water stored in the Gold Hill <br /> Mill's pond overflowed the Hazel A mine's bulkhead on October 25, 1991. I have previously <br /> addressed how this water discharge happened, and what should be done to insure that this <br /> cannot reoccur. However, I would like to emphasize once again that the water that was <br /> accidently discharged into Cash Gulch was not the highly acidic, yellow mine water full of <br /> toxic heavy metals that some people automatically associate with mine water discharges. In <br /> fact, it was clear water and was probably relatively free of any harmful mineral constituents, <br /> because it had not been standing in the Cash mine workings for more than a few months time. <br /> Most of the water had probably entered into the upper levels of the mine during the previous <br /> couple of months. Because of the long distance that this water had to travel as it flowed down <br /> Cash Gulch to Summerville, and the relatively large amount of snowmelt that this water flow <br /> would have picked up along the streambed, it is not likely that a water sample taken at that <br /> time would have disclosed abnormally high metal concentrations. I strongly believe that there <br /> was nothing hazardous to anyone's health contained in this water. I think that this conclusion is <br /> supported by the fact that Mr. Robert Griffith of the Colorado Department of Health did not <br /> feel that it was necessary to sample the Cash mine water stored behind the Hazel A mine's <br /> bulkhead when he inspected the site on November 26, 1991, with you and Mr. Stevens. <br /> I am curious if Mr. Freirich has ever obtained samples for analysis from the water <br /> flowing in the creek through Summerville during any of these many events that he attributes to <br /> discharges from the Cash mine. I believe that it would be most illuminating if he would <br /> furnish us with the results of analysis from Health Department tests of his water well. Would <br /> you please request this information from Mr. Freirich? <br /> Mr. Freirich specifically asserted in his letter that he observed another, earlier <br /> discharge on or about July 1, 1991. Mr. Freirich is also attributing this earlier, unusually high <br /> water level in the creek to the Cash mine and, by implication, to a deliberate discharge by me. <br /> As I stated to you and Mr. Stevens on November 26, 1991, at the time of your initial <br /> inspection of the Cash mine permit site I was not in the vicinity of the Cash mine at the time <br /> I <br />