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McClane Canyon Mine Expansion and Fruita Loadout Facility Biological Assessment <br />concentrations averaged 170 pg /L (ranging from <1 to 1,591 pg /L). Selenium concentrations <br />below the Mine (station SW -8) similarly averaged 180 pg /L (ranging from <1 to 1,552 pg /L). <br />East Salt Creek is within Lower Colorado River Stream Segment 13a, which is defined in <br />Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) Water Quality Control <br />Commission Regulation 37. The stream segment has a Use - Protected antidegradation <br />designation, a Warm Class 2 Aquatic Life Use classification, Recreation class P (potential <br />primary contact use), and numeric standards for metals and inorganic compounds that are <br />based on the Agriculture use. Numeric standards are the conditions necessary to avoid <br />antidegradation for a particular water use, such as agriculture, established by the Water Quality <br />Control Commission. The numeric standard for the selenium concentration in Segment 13a is <br />20 pg /L. Under Water Quality Control Commission Regulation 31.8(1)(b), use - protected waters <br />"shall be maintained and protected at their existing quality unless it is determined that allowing <br />lower water quality is necessary to accommodate important economic or social development in <br />the area in which the waters are located. For these waters, no degradation is allowed unless <br />deemed appropriate following an antidegradation review in accordance with section 31.8(3)." <br />Loadout Facility. The elevation of the proposed Loadout Facility is approximately 4,470 feet. <br />The proposed location of the Loadout Facility is the abandoned Fruita Refinery, which is an <br />industrial area (Map 3). Sparse vegetation is present consisting mostly of black greasewood, <br />cheatgrass, and other non - native invasive weed species, especially halogeton (Halogeton <br />glomeratus) (IME Environmental Consultants, 2010). Portions of the Loadout Facility are <br />relatively devoid of vegetation, consisting of areas filled with refinery sludge, former evaporation <br />ponds, berms, dikes, roads, and excavated barrow areas associated with land farms. <br />The site and adjacent lands were undeveloped or in agricultural use prior to the start of a <br />refinery operation in 1957 by the American Gilsonite Company. The refinery originally <br />processed gilsonite (i.e., bitumen: a naturally - occurring solid or semi -solid hydrocarbon) ore into <br />liquid products and petroleum coke. Gilsonite was mined and transported via pipeline, in slurry <br />form about 72 miles from the Bonanza mining district to the refinery complex from 1957 to 1973. <br />The refinery was later converted to process conventional crude oils into liquids and coke. Gary <br />Energy Corporation purchased the operation in December 1973 and produced gasoline and <br />diesel fuel, jet fuel, naphtha, vacuum gas oil, heavy fuel oil, calcined petroleum coke, and <br />liquefied petroleum gas. Refinery operations continued until about 1993, with several <br />owners /operators during that period. <br />Several large impoundments were utilized as evaporation ponds and landfarm areas for <br />refinery- generated water and waste materials. Landfill areas at the site contain buried coke <br />fines and a 7 -acre closed site containing solidified acid - sludge material on the northeast corner <br />of the Loadout Facility property. The landfarm area covers 39 acres of former evaporation <br />ponds. The area received Closure Certification for residential /unrestricted use from CDPHE in <br />2005. However, soil surfaces associated with the former landfarm are devoid of vegetation and <br />are somewhat malodorous. <br />Reed Wash is a perennial waterbody that flows through the proposed location of the Loadout <br />Facility before its confluence with the Colorado River. Non - native tamarisk is the dominant <br />overstory species in the riparian zone along Reed Wash. Reed Wash is within the Colorado <br />River 100 -year floodplain from its confluence with the Colorado River to approximately 7,200 <br />feet upstream (Mesa County, 2011). The Colorado River 100 -year floodplain also extends for a <br />short distance up Loma Drain, another perennial waterbody that flows through the western <br />portion of the Loadout Facility property. <br />No disturbances from previous or existing industrial developments within the proposed Loadout <br />Facility property coincide with the 100 -year floodplain extending 'up Reed Wash. However, the <br />7 <br />