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Land is planned to be mined. The mining activity of the slough will destroy the free <br />flow of existing warm water that passes from the Gravel Land onto the Reservoir <br />Company Land and will therefore destroy recreational use of the Reservoir <br />Company Land. The Reservoir therefore strenuously objects to any change of the <br />warm water slough property that would affect the transmission of surface and <br />subsurface water that flows across the Gravel Land onto the Reservoir Company <br />Land. <br />• The Lower Latham Reservoir Company - If the Applicant is allowed or required to <br />place underground impervious barriers to the historic flows of the subsurface waters <br />of this area, then the natural irrigation of the Reservoir Company Land may be <br />detrimentally affected. Therefore the Reservoir Company requests that the <br />Applicant be required to immediately construct monitoring wells along the <br />boundary of its property to establish a baseline of data for the location and amount <br />of subsurface water on the Gravel Land, particularly along the boundary of the <br />Gravel Land and the Reservoir Company Land. <br />• The Lower Latham Reservoir Company - The mining plan of the Applicant should <br />include specific mitigation provisions to rectify any alteration of the flow of <br />subsurface water that may be caused by the mining activity including the <br />installation of impervious barriers for gravel pit lining. <br />• Plumb Irrigation Company - The company has very strong concerns regarding the <br />seep canal on the southern end of the proposed mine. Mining activities and <br />potentially the installation of the slurry wall could cause this seep canal to <br />experience diminished flows, thus causing injury to the shareholders. <br />• Plumb Irrigation Company - The applicant has not approached the ditch company <br />for a carriage agreement to fill the reservoir. The applicant is not a shareholder of <br />the company, so therefore no water will be delivered to this facility. Any <br />application for water rights would be speculative since there is no end user. <br />Division Response <br />The questions raised by the above comments are related to Rule 3.1.6(1) which states that <br />disturbances to the prevailing hydrologic balance of the affected land and of the <br />surrounding area and to the quantity or quality of water in surface and groundwater systems <br />both during and after the mining operation and during reclamation shall be minimized. In <br />addition, Rule 6.4.7(1) requires the Applicant to state expectations of the operation's direct <br />affect on surface and groundwater systems. <br />The Division is satisfied that the Applicant has addressed the potential for shadowing and <br />mounding due to the dewatering of the pit and the installation of the slurry wall. The <br />Applicant is currently monitoring groundwater levels through piezometers located around <br />the perimeter of the site. Two of the piezometers are located on the west side of the pit to <br />monitor for possible mounding of groundwater. Two piezometers are located along the <br />north side of the pit and one piezometer is located on the east side of the pit to monitor for <br />possible shadowing of groundwater. The Applicant is also monitoring the seasonal flow of <br />the wetland (referred to above by The Lower Latham Reservoir Company as a warm water <br />slough and by the Plumb Irrigation Company as a seep canal) as it discharges into the <br />4