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Mr. William C. York-Feirn 5 <br />During the time before this became a public issue, I informed several people about this <br />incident, including my parents, attorneys, and several friends. I readily admit that I did not <br />describe this discharge in a manner [hat reflected highly on the competence or intelligence of <br />the person who I think was responsible for causing this problem. On October 29, 1991, I <br />publicly accused Wayne Tatman of opening rather than closing the tailings pond discharge line <br />valve and causing Summerville to be inundated. Mr. Tatman's role in this affair was not a <br />matter that I left in doubt when I confronted him with his role in flooding Summerville. At no <br />time did he attempt to refute my charges or to assign the responsibility for the water discharge <br />to me. John Henderson and Gordon Sweeney were present when I expressed my opinions as <br />to who's ineptitude was responsible for draining the tailings pond. <br />Mr. Tatman initially assigned the blame for the water discharge that flowed through <br />Summerville on a broken valve at the Hazel A mine. He even showed Dick Cole a broken <br />valve as proof that the water had come from the Cash mine. Bob Mason heard the same <br />version from Mr. Tatman, and received a letter dated November 18, 1991, from Colina Oro <br />Molina disavowing any knowledge of water discharges from COM, Inc.'s property, and <br />assigning the source for the "mysterious" water discharges into Summerville to the Cash mine <br />and, by implication, blaming me. Upon receiving my copy of this letter, I realized that I was <br />being designated as the fall guy in this episode, and I resolved not to take that fall. I <br />immediately called Bob Mason, and told him the true source of the water discharge and how it <br />really occurred. <br />I have yet to meet anyone who learned that the source for the water discharge was the <br />tailings pond who first heard it from Mr. Tatman, including the investigating staff from the <br />Mined Land Reclamation Division. Since it is basically his word against mine, it is instructive <br />to review Mr. Tatman's record for veracity since he arrived at the property on October 23, <br />1990. He informed several local people that the required Boulder County consent to process <br />imported ores in the Gold Hill Mil] had been obtained. It has never been obtained. He <br />initially told the Mined Land Reclamation Division staff that the outdoor concentrates were <br />brought from Colorado Springs and sold to a Swiss Company. By December 17, 1991, the <br />concentrates' origin had changed to Humboldt County, Nevada, and they had been sent to a <br />Canadian smelter. He has denied that the concentrates were processed in the Gold Hill Mill. I <br />have proof that these concentrates were processed through the Gold Hill Mill's filtration circuit <br />prior to COM, Inc. becoming a successor operator on the permit. In his December 17, 1991, <br />response letter, Mr. Tatman stated that the area around the concentrates had been scraped up <br />and placed in the tailings pond. In fact, they had not been touched as late as the first week of <br />January, 1992, and they have still not been properly cleaned up. Mr. Tatman told the Mined <br />Land Reclamation Division that only waste rock was shipped from Tom Hendricks' Cross <br />