2011-12-23_HYDROLOGY - P2011030 (2)

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DIVISION OF RECLAMATION, MINING AND SAFETY Department of Natural Resources 1313 Sherman St., Room 215 Denver, Colorado 80203 Phone: (303) 866 -3567 FAX: (303) 832 -8106 December 23, 2011 Rory Williams Silver Star Resources, LLC 1675 Larimer Street, Suite 820 Denver, CO 80202 John Trujillo 219 10 Avenue Ouray, CO 81427 STATE OF COLORADO .� e... a .,„ HEC2 7 2011 Mike King Executive Director Loretta E Piheda Director Re: Revenue Exploration Project, NOI Number P- 2011 -030, Establishing Baseline Water Quality. Dear Mssrs. Williams and Trujillo, COLORADO D I V I S I O N O F RECLAMATION MINING SAFETY John W Hickenlooper Governor Thank you for your recent correspondence discussing the water quality issues at the Revenue Mine, which included the analysis from ACZ Laboratories of the samples taken on November 15, 2011. The discussion involves the level of water quality sampling requirements concurrent with initiating prospecting activities in the Yellow Rose drift. Your stated desire is to begin underground prospecting activities before baseline parameters are set. As stated in my November 29, 2011 NOI approval letter to you, underground prospecting activities were not to commence until the baseline water quality parameters have been established, which has been assumed to be in late 2012. The Division normally requires a minimum of five current, consecutive quarters of water analyses to define the baseline water quality and cannot approve an activity that could potentially degrade water quality until baseline collection is completed and baseline parameters are set. The reason for needing five quarters is to characterize fluctuations in water quality or quantity attributable to seasonal changes. Without a baseline, it would be difficult for the prospector or the Division to be able to determine what caused fluctuations in future water quality/quantity if, during baseline collection, mining or prospecting activities that could potentially affect the quality or quantity are allowed. Since there is water reported in the Yellow Rose drift, the Division will not allow prospecting to proceed with the Yellow Rose extension until a baseline is determined. However, the Division has the authority to allow less than five quarters of current baseline data to be collected for establishing the baseline, under some circumstances. In this particular situation, there appears to be a water quality record from past collections and analyses, and a previous NPDES permit. It may be possible to "construct" a baseline for the Revenue Mine based on these historic discharge sampling analyses, in combination with current analyses, if a sufficient record can be provided to the Division. Office of Mined Land Reclamation Office of Denver • Grand Junction • Durango Active and Inactive Mines