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Exhibit D Mining Plan Current Conditions and Operation Overview The land to be mined is currently in crop and pasture land. No mining will occur in adjacent forest. The mining plan is designed to stay completely within the pasture and crop areas. There may be a small amount of affected land where the forest is adjacent to the mining area, but these effects will be confined to only minor encroachments. The mining to be conducted on this site will be integrated into the completed (but not released) Great Blue Heron Pit located to the south. The pattern of mining will be similar, but will utilize a more rapid completion process for each mined area, especially the Phase 1 area. The mining plan for this site will primarily be driven by the reclamation plan. That is, mining areas will largely be controlled by the reclamation uni[s. The overburden on this land is thicker near the highway and northern edge of the site than it is near the river. This overburden will be stripped and saved for use in constructing slopes, backfilling lake basins co create a suitable final topography, and for topsoiling dry land areas around the lakes. Because most of this land is currently agricultural, no very sensitive habitats or environments will be mined. The only non-agricultural land to be affected is a small strip across Brush Hollow Creek where a bridge will be constructed. This bridge will provide access from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Phase 2 is where all the processing facilities will be established. Access to the site for equipment and haulage will be via the existing Great Blue Heron Pit entrance which is included in the Reclamation Permit. The use of this entrance for this operation has been approved by the Colorado Department of Transportation. Utilizing this access will eliminate the need to construct a new access with new acceleration/deceleration lanes. It appears [hat most or all of this site is within the FEMA defined floodplain. Floodplain maps show that it is possible that the outer perimeter of the site may be slightly higher than the floodplain. Appropriate approvals will be obtained from either FEMA or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for operating in the floodplain. Although no definitive wetland study has been done of the site, the only clearly defined wetlands are located next to the Arkansas River and next to Brush Hollow Creek. Exhibit C-5 shows the location of all known potential wetland sites. Some areas have been shown as probable jurisdictional wetlands, however those areas have not been delineated. Nevertheless many of those Grisenti Farms Gravel Pit Original Application Exhibit D Page D-1