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<br />Abandonment sealant consisted of 1 or 2 50-100 pound bags of "Bore-Gel" <br />and "Quick Gel" bentonite mixed with 100-200 gallons of water in a 200 <br />gallon stock tank. Once each hole was drilled to total depth it was blown <br />clean of cuttings and the mixed sealant pumped through the drill string <br />until the sealant circulated to the top of the hole. The drill pipe was then <br />"tripped" out of the hole and additional sealant pumped into the hole as <br />the drill pipe was withdrawn. In all cases, the sealant level would drop to <br />the top of the unweathered bedrock, typically at a depth between 10 and <br />20 feet. The drill rig would then move off the hole and onto another <br />location. Each of the holes were logged with geophysical tools. After <br />logging, Sutherland Brothers (the drilling contractor, of Nucla, Colorado, <br />would complete final reclamation of each hole by dumping 2-50 pound <br />bags of 3/8 inch bentonite chips (Baroid Hole Plug) into the hole then <br />shoveling cuttings into the hole to a depth of 10 feet. Then cementing the <br />top of the hole with 2-80 pound bags of sakcrete from 10 feet to surface. <br />Since none of the holes were located in fields that will be farmed or <br />grazed, surface monuments were set. These monuments are aluminum <br />caps set in the sakcrete with the hole number "stamped" in the top of <br />each cap. One hole, NHTP06P-107, was drilled deep enough to penetrate a <br />"confining layer". This hole was plugged by first filling the hole with <br />sealant (bentonite gei and water) by positive displacement and then <br />pumping in 16 sacks of cement slurry mixed with 6 gallons of water per <br />sack from the bottom of the hole (290 feet) to depth of 145 feet. Two <br />sacks of 3/8 inch bentonite were added to the top of the bentonite sealant <br />and cuttings filled the remaining hole to a depth of 10 feet. sakcrete <br />filled the hole from 10 feet to surface and a monument was set. Any <br />remaining cuttings were removed or dispersed and the area seeded with <br />the approved seed mixture. DRMS inspector, Jim Burnell, was on site and <br />toured several of the reclaimed hole sites on October 6, 2006 and verified <br />that reclamation had been satisfactorily completed. <br />