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SUt~TMY'StaE GOLa COAPORdTiOi~Q <br />s~ actto s~-v co~aparrv <br />P.O. Box 177 . Silverton, CO 81433 <br />Phone (303) 387-5533 • Telecopy (303) 387-5310 <br />Assumptions of Sunnyside Gold Concerning Contemplated Voluntary <br />Cleanup Activities <br />Upper Animas River Basin, Colorado <br />DATE: January 12, 1995 <br />1. Proposals for voluntary cleanup are part of a privileged and <br />private settlement negotiation between Sunnyside Gold <br />Corporation ("SGC") and the Water Quality Control Division of <br />the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment <br />("WQCD"). This discussion is being entered into to resolve <br />issues that gave rise to the lawsuit captioned Sunnyside Gold <br />Corporation v. Colorado Watez Quality Control Division, <br />Colorado Department of Health, Civil Action No. 94CV S4S9. <br />2. The Sunnyside Mine represents a technically sound placfn to use <br />hydraulic seals to effect mine closure as part oi` final <br />reclamation. SGC and state agencies believe that plugiging of <br />the Sunnyside Mine is the best and most technically feasible <br />• approach to ending drainage from the mine, as part of the <br />overall plan for final reclamation. <br />3. Placement of the main hydraulic seal within the American <br />Tunnel will result in the filling of the mine working:. over a <br />petiod of time. This will eventually reverse the artificial <br />hydrological conditions that currently exist within the <br />mountain, and return the groundwater flow regime within the <br />mountain to nearly natural conditions. Sealing and flooding <br />the mine may have effects that include, but are not limited <br />to, the eventual migration to the surface of water i'rom the <br />filled mine pool as pool water becomes part of the <br />hydrological regime, and changes in flow of natural seeps and <br />springs as water that formerly flowed into the cone of <br />depression of the mine and out the American Tunnel resumes its <br />natural flow paths around the mine. Voluntary cleanup <br />activities undertaken by SGC as a result of this negotiation <br />will be deemed to be mitigation for potential effects of SGC's <br />reclamation of the Sunnyside Mine by sealing and flooding its <br />workings. <br />a. Once a program of voluntary cleanup is agreed <br />upon, adopted, and carried out as agreed upon. by the <br />parties, WQCD will consider effects resulting from <br />plugging of the Sunnyside Mine to have been mitigated, <br />• and will refrain from citing or prosecuting ;iGC, its <br />parent, agents, officers, directors or employees in the <br />event such effects are detected. <br />