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March 29, 2011 C- 1981- 008/New Horizon Mine MLT <br />Inspection Topic Summary <br />NOTE: Y= Inspected N =Not Inspected R= Comments Noted V =Violation Issued NA Applicable <br />R - Air Resource Protection <br />R - Availability of Records <br />R - Backfill & Grading <br />R - Excess Spoil and Dev. Waste <br />R - Explosives <br />R - Fish & Wildlife <br />R - Hydrologic Balance <br />R - Gen. Compliance With Mine Plan <br />R - Other <br />NA - Processing Waste <br />Y -Roads <br />R - Reclamation Success <br />R - Revegetation <br />NA - Subsidence <br />NA - Slides and Other Damage <br />Y - Support Facilities On -site <br />R -Signs and Markers <br />NA - Support Facilities Not On -site <br />R - Special Categories Of Mining <br />R - Topsoil <br />COMMENTS <br />This was a Complete inspection of the New Horizon Mine, conducted by Marcia Talvitie of the <br />DRMS; Brock Bowles, temporary employee of the DRMS; and Stephanie Reigh, AmeriCorps <br />volunteer assigned to the DRMS. The inspection took place on Tuesday, 29- Mar -2011 from <br />10:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and on Wednesday, 30- Mar -2011 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Weather <br />on the first day was chilly with a strong wind blowing. On day two, temperatures were mild, <br />with a light breeze. <br />PERMITTING ACTIVITIES: <br />• The Division's review of SL -12 is nearing completion, and remaining adequacy issues are <br />being resolved. <br />ENFORCEMENT: <br />• The OSM has issued to the Division a series of four Ten -Day Notices (TDN's) in 2011, <br />based on various Citizen Complaints received from JoEllen Turner. The most recent TDN, <br />X11 -140- 182 -003, reports allegations related to placement of signs; permit document <br />availability; and subsoil sampling activities. The Division's observations regarding sign <br />placement are described in the "Signs and Markers" section of this report. A description of <br />the records available at the public repository is included within the "Availability of Records" <br />section. No subsoil sampling activities were being conducted at the time of the inspection. <br />• On 28- Mar -2011, the OSM forwarded to the DRMS a hand - written fax received from <br />JoEllen Turner on the same day. In the fax, Ms. Turner alleged that lands which have been <br />irrigated using sideroll sprinklers can never be furrow irrigated again. No clear rationale was <br />provided in support of this statement, but she seems to imply that the actions of the sideroll <br />wheels result in a surface that is too rough to furrow (a hand sketch of the offending land <br />surface is provided on page 3 of the fax). During the inspection, we looked at IP reclamation <br />on the San Miguel Property that is included in the Phase III bond release portion of SL -12. <br />The reclaimed area has a very uniform surface texture, with uniform establishment of <br />vegetative cover and gently rolling terrain (Photo 1). We did not observe any tracking or <br />indentations in the ground surface due to the traversing action of the sideroll wheels. For <br />comparison purposes, we examined the furrows that have been established for use with gated <br />pipe in the IP reference area. The furrows run parallel, on a 30 -inch spacing (Photo 2). On <br />Number of Partial Inspection this Fiscal Year: 6 <br />Number of Complete Inspections this Fiscal Year: 3 Page 2 of 16 <br />