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III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII RECEivEC <br />FEB 14 199. <br />Colorado Department of Health <br />Water i2uality Control Division Mined Land <br />Permits and Enforcement Division Reclamation Division <br />4210 East 11th Avenue <br />Denver, Colorado 80220-3716 <br />Ms.Kathryn Dolan -Engineering Technician <br />RE: Notice of Accelerated Acute Biomonitoring Testing for <br />NPDES Effluent #024 SDH-1, <br />Western Fuels-Utah Inc. - Deserado Mine <br />NPDES Permit No. CO-0038024 <br />Rio Blanco County February 11,1991 <br />A quarterly biomonitoring sample was taken on 1/22/91 at <br />the SDH-1 #024 effluent and found to contain a Daphnia magna <br />49 hour LC50 value of 81.7 percent. The Fathead Minnow acute <br />test showed no toxicity for this sample. As required by State <br />Health Department regulations, Western Fuels-Utah Inc. <br />notified the Colorado Department of Health (Ms.Pat Nelson) at <br />11:11 hours on Thursday February 7th, 1991 within 24 hours of <br />receiving the report. Also the Colorado Mined Land <br />Reclamation, Mr.Randy Price, Reclamation Specialist. was also <br />notified of this non-compliance situation on the same day. <br />The following explanation for this situation is as <br />follows: <br />1. Due to the severe cold temperatures that occurred <br />of the lagoon pump was not as regular as we would have liked. <br />2. During this period. the alluvial wells had to be <br />operated continuously in order to provide raw water to the <br />mine. We believe this operation did not show the degree of <br />raw water improvement that we wanted to achieve. The raw <br />water salinity dropped from a TDS of 6.400 mg/1 to 5.400 <br />mg/1. <br />3. Historically, the monitoring of the QAL-5 groundwater <br />monitoring well has showed the level of TDS in the alluvial <br />well increases in the winter from November to May in the <br />spring. We believe this is working against what we are <br />trying to achieve. <br />4. Since the weather has improved and the correction of <br />these functional problems, we have observed a significant <br />reduction in the TDS values in our raw water supply to the <br />underground mine. (As of 2/7/91 our TDS for raw water was <br />1,050 mg/1.) <br />Western Fuels-Utah Inc. feels that during the accelerated <br />testing period, we should start to see the Daphnia manna <br />acute toxicity reduce and once again remain in compliance <br />with our biomonitoring permit. <br />Sincerely <br />CC: Dave Miller <br />Murari Shrestha Tim heroic <br />File Environmental Coordinator <br />Western Fuels-Utah Inc. <br />