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maximum tonnage, which has already been set as a condition for Pit #2. <br />Therefore, truck traffic will not exceed limits already set by the County. The <br />entry to the pit will not change nor will the haul routes. The proximity to <br />Highway 40 via the new county road provides simple and safe access to gravel <br />users, without creating new offsite impacts. <br />If the County approves this amendment request, Precision's mine plan <br />will change, but not in a dramatic fashion. The products to be produced from the <br />expansion of Pit #2 will be the same products currently marketed from Pit #2. <br />The Applicants are not requesting approval for concrete or asphalt batching <br />plants. Processing facilities will remain in the bottom of the current pit, but the <br />area designated as phase II on the current plan will become a later phase of <br />extraction, as it is the current site for our scales and fuel storage facility. We <br />propose constructing a private internal bridge across Trout Creek from our <br />current phase I operation to access the additional reserves to the south and west. <br />Unlike the existing permitted area, the expansion area is only adjacent to a sparse <br />stand of cottonwood trees located to the northwest and .west of the proposed <br />expansion area. Gravel mined from the new area to the west and south of Trout <br />Creek would be transported by conveyor and/or trucks to our existing <br />processing facilities. <br />We are also requesting the amendment of two current conditions. The <br />first requested amendment is the relaxation of permit condition #9, which limits <br />the "disturbed area" to 25 acres at any one time. While well intentioned, the <br />condition is overly restrictive and has unintended negative safety consequences <br />and drives up the cost of product to consumers. The purpose of the condition is <br />presumably intended to limit the visual impact created from the pit. Quite <br />frankly, the visual impact of Pit #2 and the additional requested acreages is <br />minimal and would not be significantly increased if the disturbed area limit were <br />increased. The pit is almost impossible to see from Highway 40 or the Town of <br />Milner to the north and the land to the south and west is vacant grazing land <br />owned or leased by the Camilletti family. The pit is only visible from certain <br />homesites that are located to the east of the pit along RCR 179. <br />Pit #2 currently produces many gravel products to meet local demand. <br />Additionally, clean imported fill material is accepted into Pit #2 and this practice <br />will continue. Specifically, the existing pit produces and sells the following: pit <br />run, two separate grades of "CDOT spec" crushed road base, four separate sizes <br />of screened rock, concrete sand, 4"-8" cobble, crusher fines, reject sand, and <br />squeege. Material must be extracted, moved to the appropriate processor, for <br />screening, washing, crushing, etc. The products are then moved into stockpiles, <br />which must be separated sufficiently for safe movement of loaders and haul <br />trucks to move into, maneuver around and exit the pit. Conflict between <br />equipment operators, haulers, extraction and processing operations and <br />employees/ laborers is inevitable and causes unnecessary safety concerns. With <br />the current restriction on disturbed acreage, products must be constantly moved <br />around within the pit leading to inefficiencies and costs that must be passed <br />along to consumers.