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Southwestern <br />Ecological <br />Services I? <br />v <br />37 East Colorado Avenue • Denver, Colorado 80210-3105 • (303) 722-9067 • Fax 1-866-820-1556 (toll free) <br />August 8, 2008 <br />Jared Ebert <br />Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety <br />Room 215 <br />1313 Sherman Street <br />Denver, CO 80203 <br />RECEIVED <br />RE: Response to adequacy letter. Daniels Sand Pit #2 amendment 3. ?AUG 0 8 1108 <br />Permit:-1973-007-- S(, n <br />U?j(A?,/ Division of ReGamation, <br />Dear Mr. Ebert: Mining and Safety <br />Thank you for your excellent adequacy letter on this amendment. Following are the responses to your questions and <br />comments. <br />Exhibit E - Reclamation Plan: <br />Item A. - Clarification on the scheduling of reclamation work performed. <br />Response: As each pit slope is completed with grading, topsoiling and revegetation will ensue as soon as <br />practicable. Topsoiling is often most successful if done in the autumn after the severe thunderstorm <br />season has passed. Topsoiling in the summer often results in erosion problems that must be <br />repaired prior to seeding and that adds considerably to the cost of reclamation. Seeding can occur <br />any time after topsoiling is completed, but it is often best to wait a few months so the soil can settle <br />as well as, hopefully, accumulate a bit of internal moisture from winter rains and snowmelt. Seeding <br />on south and west facing slopes should not be delayed beyond about March 1, but east and north <br />facing slopes can wait until late March or even early April. The best time to seed in most years is <br />probably in February as that allows the seed to settle in and take advantage of early spring snow. <br />Seeding after April, although possible, often will result in less success and sometimes failure if the <br />year is dry. In summary, grading of slopes can be done whenever a slope is finished with mining. <br />Topsoiling will occur from late September through December. Seeding will occur between January <br />and March or April, with the latter only on east and north facing slopes. As to how long it will take <br />the vegetation to become established, there has been little experience at this site with vegetating <br />slopes. On flat areas, two to three seasons produced excellent establishment with normal <br />precipitation. It is suspected that east and north facing slopes should be similar, but south and west <br />facing slopes could well take a couple of more years to show similar development. With near <br />normal precipitation and barring any major thunderstorms that cause severe erosion, revegetation <br />should be completed in five years on even the more challenging slopes. Of course, if there is <br />drought or major erosion that requires a significant amount of regrading and reseeding then the five <br />year estimate of time to completion may need to be extended. <br />Item B. - Final land use for the "Special Overlap Zone" and temporary revegetation until the highway construction <br />begins. <br />Response - Final Land Use: We suspect that a redesignation of this area as an Industrial/Commercial final land <br />use is probably a good solution, so long as it is understood that by <br />Industrial/Commercial is meant highway construction. As portions of this area are <br />already disturbed, an alternate revegetation program will be needed in the event the <br />highway construction does not occur. Current plans for the highway are still