GENERAL46571 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Forest Service Road 201, to other 4x4 USFS system and non-system roads. The site was moderately to severely burned by the 2002 Hayman Fire. Operations under the two existing and this proposed CUP will take place intermittently, primarily between June and late October or early November. Mechanized equipment will be used for a maximum of 60 eight-hour days/season for all three operations, with hand digging and mineral extraction taking place during the rest of the season. During the active phase of mining, when equipment is on site, three to five people (approximately three private vehicles, exclusive of guests) are anticipated to be working and will camp on or near the site. Although camping for 14 consecutive days in one location is allowed by the USFS, and Applicant represents that personnel will leave the site daily to take caze of personal sanitation needs, the USFS and Teller County Department of Environmental Health have each required that a small, portable, chemical toilet be on-site at all times. Trash and refuse will be hauled off-site. Fuel, oil, and lubricants for vehicles and equipment will be brought in as necessary (a spill blanket will be used during refueling operations); none will be stored on-site. Neither water nor utilities exist to, on, or near the site; water for personal use and washing rock will be hauled in. Between active mining phases nothing (including heavy equipment) will remain or be stored on the site. A ten-year project life is anticipated, with a maximum disturbance over this time of up to 15.32 acres of the entire f48.5 acres claimed by Colorado Calumet (see DMG Application in Applicant's submittal). - Prior Colorado Calumet Conditional Use Permit. In 1996 the owner of Colorado Calumet leased the Two Point claim from Crystaljack Mining (which has a 1993 Teller County CUP for all its claims), and was issued a separate Teller County CUP (no file number) in its own name and solely for the Two Point. The Crystaljack/Colorado Calumet lease was terminated in 2001 and the separate Two Point CUP likewise terminated, with the Two Point claim itself reverting to its prior coverage under Crystaljack's 1993 Permit. Backeround. All mining activities on USFS lands require an approved USFS Plan of Operations. All DMG-identified minin activities (as opposed to prospecting activities), require a DMG mined land reclamation permit whether or not on federal land, and therefore also a Teller County Conditional Use Permit. Because citizens have the statutory right to develop mining claims on federal lands under the 1872 mining law, sub-surface mining can not be categorically denied by the Forest Service, the State, or the County; surface use and mining impacts, however, can be mitigated or otherwise controlled. Under law, Teller County can not require bonding for reclamation. The Hackett Mountain/Crystal Creek vicinity in Park and Teller counties has, at least since the 1940s, been repeatedly disturbed by hundreds of small mining activities; today there are still apparently 30 or so active mining/prospecting operations in the area. According to Applicant, Colorado Calumet's Stealth and Blue Streak No. 1 in particular have been extensively disturbed by past hand digging and mechanized equipment (not all of it authorized). Overlapnine Minine Operations. Joe Dorris, Authorized Representative of the Applicant and also its designated Operator, is also the Operator for Crystaljack Mining, and Owner/Operator of his own mining company, Glacier Peak Mining (issued a CUP by Teller County in 2003). The claims of these three separate mining operations -Colorado Calumet, Crystaljack, and Glacier Peak -while covered by sepazate DMG and Teller County permits, are adjacent and/or overlap as seen in the two maps Colorado Calumet (Dorris) -CUP-00550(06) Planning Commission: July I1, 2006 Tentative BOCC Hearing: August 10, 2006 Staff Report: June 28, 2006 Page 2 of 15