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DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES <br />DIVISION OF WATER RESOURCES <br />Bill Ritter, Jr. <br />Governor <br />January 6, 2009 Harris D. Sherman <br />Executive Director <br />Dick Wolfe, P.E. <br />Director <br />Mr. Richard T. Raines <br />xj Applegate Group, Inc. <br />1499 West 120th Ave., Suite 200 <br />Denver, Colorado 80234-2759 <br />RE: Substitute Water Supply Plan, Greeley West Pit, DRMS No. M-77-081 <br />Section 36, T6N, R66W, 6th P.M. <br />Water Division 1, Water District 3, Weld County <br />Approval Period: November 1, 2008 through October 31, 2009 <br />Contact Phone Number for Mr. Richard Raines: 303-452-6611 <br />Dear Mr. Raines: <br />Your letter dated August 28, 2008, requesting renewal of the above referenced substitute <br />water supply plan to cover depletions caused by an existing gravel mining operation has been <br />reviewed. The required fee of $257 for the renewal of this substitute water supply plan has been <br />submitted. The original plan was approved on January 14, 1992 and it was most recently renewed <br />on October 23, 2007. <br />SWSP Operations and Depletions <br />The Greeley West Pit is still owned by Flatiron Companies ("Flatiron") and is leased to <br />Lafarge for mining. In an agreement with Flatiron, the City of Greeley assumed the long-term <br />augmentation responsibility for the Greeley West Pit. The total exposed pond surface area at this <br />site is 75.2 acres. According to the information from the previous plan, a total of 45.5 acres of pond <br />surface was exposed within the Greeley West reclamation permit boundary priorto January 1, 1981. <br />This results in 29.7 acres of exposed surface area requiring augmentation. Thus the anticipated net <br />depletion for this plan is 86.9 acre-feet per year. Evaporation is the only consumptive use of water at <br />this site. It is anticipated that mining will resume at this site once the operator, Lafarge West, Inc., <br />completes mining activities at the nearby 35th Avenue Pit site (M-77-036). No dewatering is provided <br />or sought under this plan. <br />Note, that due to a change in administration of evaporation from ground water exposed to <br />the atmosphere prior to 1981, pre-1981 credits will no longer be allowed for gravel pits which <br />exposed ground water to the atmosphere prior to 1981 and were actively mined on or after January <br />1, 1981. Accordingly, evaporative depletions for such gravel pits will need to be replaced from the <br />entire surface area of the ground water exposed in the pits. In order to allow owners and operators <br />of the affected pits time to comply with this change in the administration requirements, the owners <br />and operators will have until January 1, 2010 to comply with the replacement requirements. If the <br />area included in the DRMS mining permit site contains individual gravel pit ponds that were not <br />altered or mined after December 31, 1980, you may still be able to maintain the "pre-81" credit <br />Office of the State Engineer ;f <br />1313 Sherman Street, Suite 818 • Denver, CO 80203 • Phone: 303-866-3581 • Fax: 303-866-3589 <br />www.water.state.co.us