2009-01-19_PERMIT FILE - M2008080

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k,. Ron 8,11<.e r January 12, 2009 RECEIVED JAN 19 2009 Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety 1313 Sherman Street Room 215 Denver, Colorado 80203 RE: Application of mining permit for Journey Ventures Pit To whom it may concern: Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety The purpose of this letter is to state my commA?ts concerning the proposed Journey Ventures Pit which would be located at or near Section 7, Township 5 North, Range 64 West, 6th Prime Meridian in Weld County, Colorado. I own the property adjacent to the North boundary of the property in the mining application. My first concern is the need for this gravel operation. Several years ago, Hall-Irwin Construction was granted a permit for a much larger gravel mine, concrete batch plant, and asphalt batch plant on a location less than 1.5 miles from this proposed site. A 15 year completion time frame was granted by Weld County. To date, no mining has taken place. It is my understanding that if the gravel is not mined in the next 10 years, any remaining material will belong to the water district that has an agreement with Hall-Irwin for water storage. I would think that if there is truly a demand for this material, Hall-Irwin's operation would be underway. If demand increases, the Hall-Irwin site should be able to meet demand for some time to come. I also know of several ditch companies that have gravel available from cleaning of ditch canals downstream of river head gates, and they can not give this material away. In the application, it is stated a bentonite wall may be constructed from phase 3 to phase 11 in order to dry mine this site. This seems vague and the targeted time frame to do this is certainly spread out. If a bentonite wall is constructed, I am concerned with the "shadow" effect of such a wall in regards to ground water changes on my property. My agricultural field is directly North of this property and ground water flows North toward the South Platte River, which borders my property on the North. Will part of my agricultural field have less underground water available behind this wall, and conversely, will parts of my field have bog areas near the East and West edges of the wall due to the high water table currently in this area? Two water table monitoring wells were placed this past summer near the North/East and North/West corners of the proposed site. I do not believe this is sufficient to truly understand historic water flows in this area. There are no monitoring wells near the North center of the site which might demonstrate a downstream "shadow" affect. When I mentioned my concern of "shadow" affect to JC York, he said IF a bentonite wall is constructed a perforated drain pipe would be installed on the downstream side of the mine site. The last I knew, water will take the path of least resistance which would mean water would always flow at the entrance point or points of the pipe and may not flow near the center depending on current ground water fluctuations. This would mean more water concentration just downstream of the entrance points. I also have the same concerns even if a bentonite wall is not