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INTRODUCTION <br />The Gilsonite Pit, located approximately 2.5 miles northwest of the town of Fruita, Colorado in Mesa <br />County, is located on the Gilsonite refinery property which has been disturbed by chemical opera- <br />tions for many years. The permit area is 69.27 acres and gravel will be mined from an area of <br />approximately 39.7 acres, leaving a lake with wetland areas 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 areas, evaporation ponds and other disturbance was part 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. <br />All issues concerning the Compliance Order, contamination, discharge, waste handling, etc. have <br />been resolved as the result of significant inter-agency negotiation. The CDPHE has divided the site <br />into 3 areas: Subareas 1,2 and 3. Subareas 1 and 3 are 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 area. The mining plan for this permit begins the mining <br />phases in Subarea 3. It is planned that the evaporation ponds will be cleaned up prior to the comple- <br />tion of mining in Subarea 3 and the operation would simply continue in that direction (west) on the <br />land in Subarea 1 and 2. These Subareas are shown Map C-1. <br />Gilsonite Pit 5/03 <br />