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<br /> <br />Mined Land Reclamation Board <br />1313 Sherman St. <br />Denver, CO 80203 <br />Gentlemen: <br />~ ~ III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII <br />999 <br />P.O. Box 712 <br />Cascade, CO 80809 <br />October 10, 1977 <br />i <br />• - ~ _~ n j <br />I_ :1977 <br />_ _,~'_r',i~iP',rf~rd <br />... ..1! I~cSOCfCBS <br />In 1971, District Judge George Gibson ruled against the Castle <br />Concrete Company in their attempt to expand their quarries along <br />the Colorado Springs area front range. His decision was based <br />upon what I felt was a unique contention: that the economic <br />loss our tourist-based economy would sustain would be greater <br />than the loss the company maintained it would suffer were <br />expansion denied. <br />Shortly thereafter, I left Colorado, and later returned to find <br />Judge Gibson's ruling had apparently been reversed on appeal. <br />It is now six years later, the quarries have grown, the promised <br />reclamation efforts have not materialized, and a larger cloud <br />of dust looms daily over the scenic Ute Pass corridor. <br />I am continually amazed at how zoning laws are set up apparently <br />for the sole purpose of generating employment for attorneys and <br />commissioners who need to consider variances. I have yet to see <br />the justification for having state and federal lands reserved <br />and supposedly preserved as "natural resources" only to be <br />stripped, scarred and desecrated. <br />In following the most recent perambulations of Castle Concrete's <br />appeals through the governmental agencies responsible for <br />protecting citizens' interests, I am amazed at how much of the <br />submitted data was labeled "confidential", at least in our local <br />press. I am presuming that the maps and blueprints your board <br />saw-were similarly circumscribed with "confidential" areas. <br />These doubts and unanswered questions make me question Castle <br />Concrete's ability and intention to grade their quarries with <br />a topography appropriate to final land use and to then revegetate <br />it with a long-lasting cover. There is visible, and probably <br />measurable, air pollution from their current operations; this <br />makes me question their ability to dispose of soil and water <br />pollutants long-range. I also question the eventual drsinage <br />patterns their quarrying activities will create. <br /> <br />