2010-01-25_REVISION - C1981008 (5)

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Y Q-- January 20, 2010 Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety 1313 Sherman Street, Room 215 teco (?® Denver, Colorado 80203 Z010 .IAN 2 5 Attn: Sandy Brown v?vi:;tc;, ??aiamat?on Marcia Taivetti PA?ning and Safety Dan Mathews RE: Proposed Changes to Post Mining Land Use at the New Horizon Mine as Prepared by Ross -Gubka, Chief Engineer, Western Fuels - Colorado- We have received and read the proposed revised Section 2.05.4(2)(e) addressing the post-mine land use changes at the New Horizon #2 Mine. Those changes include the re-classification of our land west of 2700 Road to Dryland Pasture. Based on the inaccurate and misleading information which has been presented in that proposal regarding our property, the history of the use and irrigation of that property, and the use of our 44 shares of water, we have no choice but to write this letter of opposition. First of all, we own 44 shares of water, not 42 shares, as stated in the proposed revision. Second, those 44 shares of water have historically been more than enough to irrigate our entire property for over 90 years. We raised corrugated row crops, corn, barley, oats, and potatoes, as well as alfalfa and irrigated grass pasture. We had a system of ditches and cross ditches to carry and distribute our water. It was never allowed to flow over the land at will, as Mr. Gubka has stated, nor did we ever "wild flood irrigate as he states. Even when we irrigated alfalfa and grass pasture, we used a system of catch ditches to distribute the water in order to use it as efficiently as possible. If watered too much, alfalfa will drown out and be replaced by grass. We took care of our land, rotated our irrigation water as needed, and changed our sets every -12 hours. Mr. Gubka states that one share of water per acre is required for irrigated land, which would be true if it were necessary that the total acreage be irrigated at the ame_time. However, it is absolutely untrue that a property owner must have enough water to irrigate all of his acreage at one time. Most landowners in the area own 3-4 times the number of acres than they own in water shares, and they have plenty of water to irrigate their holdings. Water is rotated from field to field, and sets are changed regularly. Mr. Gubka further states that we designated our water to a different parcel; therefore, we simply do not have enough available water to irrigate our land. That is not true. As part of our contract, we leased our 44 shares of water to Western Fuels. Western Fuels did exactly what they wanted to do with it. We have had no input whatsoever as to where or how our water was to be used