2010-10-01_REVISION - C1981008 (11)

Home Browse Search

acres were re-topsoiled and seeded. In December 1995, in Section IV of Midterm Review No. 3, the Division required revisions of the permit to address several concerns. Among these was Item 12 (topsoil balance and potential availability of excess D70B to supplement other areas). WFC responded, in a letter received January 12, 1996, that all available D70B topsoil was salvaged and stockpiled, as required. However, the volume of D70B was substantially less than what had been anticipated based on the soil survey. Once distributed, the available quantity had been sufficient to reclaim only 6.73 acres (all on the Staats parcel), rather than 14.6 acres. Although there was some confusion over whether the 15 acres of Barx soil was or was not prime farmland, the Division found, in the findings for the subsequent PR-04, that the land in question had been reclaimed to prime farmland standards as far as topsoil handling and depths were concerned. In April 1996, WFC submitted an application for Permit Revision No. 4 (PR-04), which added 100.7 acres to the New Horizon Mine 2 permit area (the Garvey and Burbridge parcels, south of BB Road and immediately east of 2'7!1(1 Rood) T- soil - Ivey, conducted by Intermountain Resource Inventories in February 1996, identified no Barx soils within the expansion area. On March 29, 1996, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (MRCS) issued a negative determination for prime farmlands (Attachment 2.04.9-6) for the expansion area. PR-04 was approved on December 9, 1996. The 1996 NRCS letter references the document, "Colorado Important Farmland Inventory" (CIFI), prepared by the USDA in 1982 (Attachment 2.04.9-5). The CIFI lists specific USDA criteria, all of which prime farmlands must meet. Item 3 on the list requires a "pH between 4.5 and 8.4 in all horizons within a depth of 40 inches or in the root zone if the root zone is less than 40 inches deep". In addition, certain modifications and/or interpretations of the National Criteria for Prime Farmlands were applied to Colorado, including (Item 4): "irrigated soils with bedrock within 40 inches of the surface and soil horizons that have a pH higher than 7.4 are considered as having high conductivity and therefore not prime". Permit Revision No. 5 (PR-5) added 476.9 acres to the permit and was approved on April 24, 2000. Intermountain Resource Inventories (IRI) conducted an Order 1 survey of the proposed expansion area in 1998. Although Barx soils were identified (unit 98E on Map 2.04.9-1), IRI concluded, based on the Important Farmland Inventory criteria as modified for Colorado, that Ba.rx soil was not considered as being prime farmland because the pH was higher than 7.4 in all horizons. Early in 2008, the USDA NRCS provided the Division with updated information regarding the subject of prime farmlands and the New Horizon Mine. In a letter written February 11, 2008 (Attachment 2.04.9-6), a Soil Scientist explained that the limiting pH threshold of 7.4 found in the CIFI was in error, and should have been 8.4. Additionally, the CIFI is now rendered obsolete and determinations for Prime Farmland are based on the national criteria as described in the National Soil Survey Handbook - 7 CFR Ch. VI Part 657, Subsection 657.5, dated Jan. 1, 2000 (Attachment 2.04.9-6). The letter concludes that both Darvey and Barx soils mapped in the 1998 IRI survey are considered Prime Farmland. In a letter dated February 21, 2008 (Attachment 2.04.9-6), the Resource Conservationist from the Norwood office of the NRCS provided a positive determination of prime farmland for 17