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<br /> <br />Page 2 of 3 pages <br />A fairly detailed discussion followed concerning the safety and appropriateness of disposing <br />of waste; rock, waste ores and mill processing wastes (tailings) by placing them back into <br />mine shafts and tunnels. Mr. Otten and Rick Brown were the major participants in this <br />discussion. <br />Then discussion turned to the inter-relationship of CERCLA remedial activities and the <br />state's solid waste regulations. Pam Harley assured Mr. Otten and Mr. Schurman that the <br />state's solid waste and mined land reclamation programs were making every effort to avoid <br />duplication of permitting and to increase the consistency of the technical requirements <br />applied to similar sites under each agencies' jurisdiction. She told Mr. Otten and Mr. <br />Schurman that the regulated community as a whole considered fairness and a "level playing <br />field" to be very significant issues when comparing the closure and monitoring requirements <br />imposed at mine waste sites and at other commercial and industrial waste sites. <br />Mr. Otten and Mr. Schurman expressed specific concerns about the cost of disposing of <br />wastes at Last Chance. They were assured by both Rick Brown and Pam Harley that other <br />appropriately approved and permitted sites including CSI and Solution Gold would be <br />allowed to receive the tailings if off-site disposal were selected as the closure method by the <br />owners/operators. <br />The neat concern voiced by Mr. Otten and Mr. Schurman was the need for a solid waste <br />disposal permit for Golden Gilpin Mill closure. Pam Harley assured them that, if on-site <br />closure was the option selected by the owners/operators, the site could be closed under the <br />provisions of existing MLRD permit and no added permit would be required for the under <br />the Colorado solid waste regulations. <br />Post-closure monitoring requirements were discussed,. The requirements for a closed site <br />under the Solid Waste site model would include physical inspection of the cap over the <br />waste disposal site, the status of revegetated areas, and the storm water diversion structures <br />to assure that all were in good condition. Twice annual ground water sampling would be <br />required at wells down gradient of the site. The chemical laboratory ana:yses for these <br />sampling events would include appropriate parameters based on known waste constituents. <br />Also discussed, as background, were the scope and applicability of the federal solid waste <br />regulations commonly referred to as Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery <br />Act (RCRA). Mr. Schurman felt that since the federal regulations did not specifically <br />include mining waste that the state's solid waste regulations could not be more stringent. <br />Pam Harley noted that the state's solid waste regulations have an independent authority in <br />the state's statutes that does not rely on the federal provisions and, in fact, existed before <br />RCRA became effective. She agreed the Part 258 of federal regulations (RCRA <br />Subtitle D) addresses only municipal solid waste landfills; but she reminded Mr. Schurman <br />that Part 257 did include other types of solid waste treatment and all industry and <br />commercial waste streams including mining wastes. <br />