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'" The amount of damage that could happen because of the choking of the river during flood stage would be enormous. We feel we were damaged extensively with non life threatening flooding last year but since the river has been weakened and made shallow by the debris, dirt and rip rap banks, trees, gravel and fencing falling into the river, it has no where else to go but over it's banks even more so this year. We watched the berms go up last Spring and did not realize the effect it would have on everyone up stream. We assessed the damage and are very concerned about the future. We have noticed that the berms have even been built higher this yeaz. They aze building these berms over 15-20' tall on the Westerly edge of our property. That side of the river bank is slightly lower than the Southerly edge of the river. Consequently, when a large berm is in place, the water has no where to go but fight itself upstream. Over the 70 years this Ranch has been owned by my family the river has gently risen and fallen over the 40 acres bordering this pit. With the berm in place the river has nowhere to go and is forced back upstream and out of it's banks with a tremendous force. Our pasture, hay crop, massive trees and fencing has been destroyed on that 40 acre parcel due to this type of flooding. The berms have created a dam causing unusually deep water to stand on our hay meadow, suffocating the good grasses and allowing weeds to take over. The balance of our 300 acres was affected just as harshly. As high as these berms are today, we will not be able to rip rap the river banks and protect our home and ranch from the ultimate flooding every spring. We have photographs, both on ground and aerial showing the widespread damage to our fazm and ranch due to this unnecessary flooding. We felt fortunate that the rip rapping that we had done the previous fall held somewhat and did not threaten our homes. This year we will not be so lucky. The flood last year was not even a 25 yeaz flood...it was normal runoff: In the past 70 years of ownership of this property, we did not have to deal with this type of flooding. This is man- made and at the expense of all of the neighboring landowners. Last year, Ivir. Bob Deakins filed a formal complaint as to the extent of the damage done to his property on the North side of the river. The response from Inspector Allen Sorenson was that they have the right to berm up and protect their stockpiles. We do not feel that they have the right to protect their inventories at the expense of our livelihood and domiciles. We feel there is a better solution to any normal flooding that the pit may experience than choking the river and causing it to cut new channels and flood in areas that has never been flooded before.