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<br /> <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br />1 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br />INTRODUCTION <br />The purpose of this report is to present the results of our evalu~3tion of the <br />hydrologic characteristics of the tailing storage facilities at the Henderson Mill. The <br />Henderson Mill is a molybdenum processing facility owned and operated by Climax <br />Molybdenum Company (Climax) that is located in Grand County approximately 13 miles <br />north of Silverthorne, Colorado. The mill is located along Ute Creek, a tributary of the <br />Williams Fork River. The Henderson Mill is a "zero discharge" facility, meaning that all <br />of the water diverted into the system is used until it is fully consumed. Under all but <br />extreme conditions, no water is released from the system. <br />The flood control systems at the Henderson Mill consist of two levels of <br />protection. The first level involves the bvpass of flows resulting from snowmelt floods <br />and rain floods of less than a 100-year return period. This bypass is provided by a <br />complex system of pipelines and canals that deliver the flows around or through the mill <br />facilities to the Williams Fork River. This same bypass system is used to ir~tercept and <br />bypass normal runoff flows from the tributary basins above the mill to the river below. <br />An integral part of the bypass system at the mill is the interceptor canal that <br />extends from Ute Creek around the west side of the tailing pond. The purpose of this <br />interceptor is to bypass fresh water around the impoundment into Ute Creel< below the <br />tailings dam. As the water level in the tailing pond continues to rise, it will e~~entually be <br />necessary to relocate this canal. <br />' The second level of flood protection at the mill relates to the atrility of the <br />system to withstand the effects of a probable maximum precipitation (PMP) event. The <br />t design and configuration of the mill facilities require that floods resulting from a PMP <br />event are safely stored in the tailing impoundment or in the two reservoirs when storage <br />space is available. With the existing system, the flood flows would then be released <br />from the tailing impoundment through the spillway pipe described above. <br /> <br />' 1 <br />