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Mud Creek Pit -Reclamation Permit Application -112 (C) Exhibits Page 18 of 67 <br />SECTION D-11. PREVIOUS SITE DEVELOPMENT AND ACCOMODATION: <br />The 154.4-acre site was split out in 2007 from a larger parcel including the property to the east in Section 32 (See <br />Figure 0-1). <br />The majority of the site is irrigated farmland, supplied by the Boss Ditch, However, portions of the site were allowed <br />to lie fallow for many years, although the irrigation system (ditches) has been maintained in operable condition. <br />Various crops were grown on the site. This site is currently a mixture of non-irrigated and irrigated pasture and <br />cropland, and also receives some return flows from upstream water users. <br />In addition to the purely agricultural activities, the site was also used for mining. This mining has always been <br />separate from mining at the Noland "Cedar Point' Pit located to the West of this site. Based on disturbances to the <br />site, mining has been done in several places on the property, both for construction on-site and obviously for use off- <br />site, in a practice known as "high-grading" where only easily processed materials were taken from selected pits. At <br />least some of the areas mined have been reclaimed. <br />The largest area of mining is located on the western edge of the property. Here, an area of at least 3.6 acres has <br />been mined in the recent past, possibly as recently as two-three years ago. This gravel pit was operating as far back <br />as the early 1960s according to historical documentation, including NRCS information, USGS mapping at all scales, <br />and aerial photography. Based on remaining features, processing of the materials (crushing, screening, possibly <br />washing and other operations such as ready-mix hatching) was done on the site. There was little or no reclamation <br />done of this pit: ramps, berms, topsoil piles, piles of oversize materials (cobbles and boulders), some equipment <br />(such as footings), and infiltration and detention basins are all to be found on the site. The access roads discussed <br />above were well-constructed and indicate that a fair amount of material was extracted and shipped off-site. <br />This area has been selected as the initial area to be developed and provide a location for plant operations, because <br />soil conditions are obvious, the area is well-located for storm water control and for water for wash operations, and at <br />a reasonable distance from the highway and entrance. <br />There are few improvements located on the site: a single building, fencing, roads and trails, the toe of a stock pond <br />dam, and the existing pit are located inside the permit boundary, as detailed in Exhibit M. Some provision for control <br />of storm water runoff from activities on the site (farming and mining) was made in the form of detention or retention <br />basins and rock check dams in the existing pit area and the northeast comer of the property. <br />The boundary of the affected area has been laid out to avoid most wooded areas, and to avoid steeper slopes and <br />sensitive areas such as the small swale in the northeast corner of the property (which conveys irrigation return flows <br />from off-site), thus creating conservation buffers for these areas. <br />Areas identified on USGS maps and previous government agency reports as intermittent water bodies or wetland <br />areas were either confirmed or determined to no longer be existent, due to changes for purposes of irrigation and <br />cultivation. <br />McStone Aggregates, LLC 15 FEB 2008 ©WASTELINE, 1NC 2008 PN 5006.1-4(009) <br />