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WILSON FARMS IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII <br />sss <br />- KECEIVED <br />JUN 1 1 1001 <br />June 13, 2002 ~ivisinn of Minerals and Geology <br />Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment <br />Division of Water Quality Control <br />4300 Cherry Creek Drive South <br />Denver, Colorado 80246-1530 <br />RE: Discharge Permit Number: COG-50000 <br />Facility Number: COG-500346 <br />Deaz Sir or Madam: <br />We live near the Varna Sand and Gravel Pit Located on Highway 6G in Platteville. At the <br />time of their application for permits to operate their gravel pit, your agenry issued Vazra a <br />permit to dischazge water in to the Saint Vrain drainage. That permit expires on September <br />30, 2002. We are asking that you NOT renew the permit until Varna changes its method of <br />operation to wet mining. We aze also asking that we be pazties in any public process required <br />by your agency in the discharge permit renewal process. <br />Varna is currently mining several deep pits, the lazgest of which is permitted to eartend over <br />83+ acres and up to 40 feet deep. When Varna stazted mining in 2000, it is our <br />understanding that wells in the immediate vicinity went dry and were deepened. As their <br />mining operation has progressed, neighbors within 1.5 miles of Vazra's operation have <br />documented a severe drop in the levels of their wells that has coincided with the opening of <br />the lazgest of the pits. Meanwhile the Varna operation is pumping copious amounts of <br />groundwater into the Saint Vrain River to the North and downstream of our wells. This <br />artificially lowers the water table accessed by well owners to the East and South of their <br />operation, and artificially inflates surface water available downstream from the point of <br />dewatering. <br />Currenty, permitting agencies aze requiring other mining applicants the immediate vicinity <br />of Vazra's Highway G6 operation to wet mine. Vazra's continued dry mining will undermine <br />the efforts of other grave] pit owners to preserve the water table. <br />The current drought has contributed to a water shortage for all of Colorado. The dry <br />mining operation Varna Sand and Gravel is using has greatly exacerbated the impacts of the <br />water shortage on surrounding wells and has distorted the natural allocation of surface and <br />groundwater available to users. The Depaztment of Public Health and Environment can <br />