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INTRODUCTION <br />The Gilsonite Pit, located approximately 2.5 miles northwest of the town of Fruits, Colorado in Mesa <br />County, is located on the Gilsonite refinery property which has been disturbed by chemical opera- <br />tions for many yeazs. The permit azea is 69.27 acres and gravel will be mined from an area of <br />approximately 39.7 acres, leaving a lake with wetland azeas upon reclamation. In the year 2000, a <br />112 permit application was filed with the DMG (File # M-2000-058). Since the gilsonite refinery and <br />associated dump azeas, evaporation ponds and other disturbance was pazt of a compliance order <br />issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, (Compliance Order No. 98- <br />06-05-01), anumber of issues concerning the site required additional investigation and the permit <br />application to the DMG was removed in November of 2000. The application was re-submitted in <br />October of 2002 and after further review and input from a number of agencies, the application was <br />revised again in May of 2003. Due to ongoing concerns about contamination and water handling, the <br />application was again revised in late September and early October of 2003. This document incorpo- <br />rates all changes made. <br />All issues concerning the Compliance Order, contamination, dischazge, waste handling, etc. have <br />been resolved as the result of significant inter-agency negotiation. The CDPHE has divided the site <br />into 3 azeas: Subareas 1,2 and 3. Subareas 1 and 3 aze approved for mining at this time (May 2003). <br />Subarea 2 has old evaporation ponds from the old refinery operation that had some petroleum <br />products which were cleaned up but are awaiting release from CDPHE. This release must granted <br />prior to any full approval for mining in this azea. The mining plan for this permit begins the mining <br />phases in Subazea 3. It is planned that the evaporation ponds will be cleaned up prior to the comple- <br />tion of mining in Subazea 3 and the operation would simply continue in that direction (west) on the <br />land in Subazea I and Z. These Subazeas are shown Map C-1. <br />Gilsonite Pit 9/03 <br />