2011-02-24_PERMIT FILE - M2010049 (2)

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Varra Companies, Inc. Office of Special Projects 8120 Gage Street Frederick, Colorado 80516 Telephone (970) 353-8310 Fax(970)353-4047 Our planned reclamation will create viable water storage and management basins, without cost to the taxpayer, into a blighted field whose above ground vegetation will be returned to predominantly native grasses; grasses which vary in form, height, color and function for maximum effect. Since the resulting basin detention will exceed any temporary or permanent diversions, the site acts as latent potential to diminish the impacts of occasional floodwaters which it does by lowering peak flows. Since floodwaters at this location are generally understood to be depositional, the retreating waters may leave cottonwood seeds carried in from upstream locations, providing a pathway for regeneration of the desired tree over a span of time. A-4. The application indicates that the resulting ponds may be lined. If so, the applicant must submit data regarding the resulting mounding and shadow effects around the lined ponds, and the mitigation measures that it will take to correct these effects if it will result in impacts to surrounding land, vegetation, and structures. There is nothing in the rules and regulations compelling such a study `must' be done, absent of merit. Again, minimizing disturbance to the prevailing hydrologic balance does not mean eliminate disturbance to the prevailing hydrologic balance. The intent is that significant impact not occur, and any proposed studies should be justified based upon an empirical understanding of the diverse elements at play, and some judgment as to what rises to a proper level of concern where such study is necessary to complete what cannot otherwise be readily discerned. Where circumstances warrant such studies to prevent significant impact, it would be understandable. Empirically, the location and elevation of the lands to be permitted relative to the surrounding lands, features and uses, suggests that impacts to those surrounding lands is minimal and further study to affirm the obvious is not warranted. For example, the developed lands to the north are separated from the operation by the Cache La Poudre River. To the east, an existing mining operation will create lands that cannot be developed in the floodplain and to an extent that mounding or shadowing effects will not extend. The remaining lands surrounding the planned basins are at elevations of 10± to 20t feet above the Varra Companies, Inc. correspondence of 23 February 2011 to the Colorado Office of Mined Land Reclamation 15 (OMLR) in reply to OMLR correspondence of 4 October 2010 - Western Sugar Reclamation Land Development Project- M-2010-049.