1995-08-11_REVISION - M1977493 (9)

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. airborne tailing dust, the aforelisted potential sources of contamination affect only the Ten Mile Creek drainage. These sources generally are in-line, with the Mayflower tailing impoundment and No. 5 Dam and the water treatment and discharge system outfall being the last point of control before leaving the Climax property(Figure 1). 5.3.2 Environmental Protection Facilities In Ten Mile Creek, there are numerous controls which are considered EPFs. With the exceptions noted in Section 5.3.1, the principal control and EPF is the Climax water treatment and discharge system which terminates at the base of No. 5 Dam with the discharge of treated water meeting the conditions and standards of the CDPS Permit at Outfall 001 located at the property line. Any contaminants that might be released from the potential sources discussed in Section 5.3.1 (except for fugitive dust) would be captured within the Ten Mile Creek watershed above or at the Mayflower impoundment where water is treated prior to discharge. Thus, the water management and treatment system is considered the major EPF for the Climax Mine and is discussed accordingly. Additional EPFs occur at other areas of potential contamination above the water discharge outfall. Although of lesser importance than the water treatment system, these EPFs also are identified and discussed in this section. The SPCC/MCP in Appendix B details designated chemical containment(EPFs). Climax Water Treatment and Di chaMa Svstem: Mine wate r inclining contact seepage and process water is collected, treated by a large scale lime hydroxide process, and discharged under the CDPS Permit as discussed in Section 2.2. Treated waters ultimately are consolidated in the Mayflower tailing impoundment prior to discharge as detailed in the schematic drawings in Appendix E. A summary and history of the Climax water treatment and discharge system is attached in Appendix H. During operational periods, the mill processing system operates in an excess water mode. The mill process consumes approximately 3950 acre feet of water annually while approximately 10,010 acre feet per year enter the mill process facilities (Climax Mine Water Balance Schematic in Appendix E). Therefore, about 6060 acre feet per year is treated and discharged when the mine is operational. During those periods when the processing facilities are not functioning, the amount of water to be treated and discharged increases to approximately 8030 acre feet per year. Mine water is pumped from the underground workings, the No. 5 Shaft pump station, and the Storke waste water pump station to the tailing delivery house (TDH) where mill tailing or process water enters the east tailing delivery line (ETDL) for delivery to and deposition in the Ten Mile tailing impoundment. Excess process water returned from Robinson Reservoir(mixed with seepage from the Robinson tailing impoundment and Eagle Park Reservoir Dam) and the Robinson impoundment also can be routed to the tailing delivery house via the process water 21