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Tt ' awe <br />MEMO <br />To: Tim Cazier, DRMS <br />From: Bud Herskind and Gary Tuttle <br />Date: January 9, 2012 <br />Re: Pueblo East Pit pumping costs, your email of January 5, 2012 <br />303.653.5584 <br />garyj tuttle @gmail. com <br />With this memo, we wish to address the volume of water and solids to be pumped over to <br />the Phase 7 area to assist in filling the Phase 7 pit. <br />Between Phases 1 and 7 are two ponds created as settling ponds. On Exhibit C, they are <br />labeled as " Phase 1, Settling Pond ". Since the beginning of Pueblo East in the early <br />1990's, the two ponds are used as sediment ponds for the washing operation. The ponds <br />sit in the groundwater and the silt is saturated from within and from water on top. More <br />silt and water is discharged into the ponds daily from the operation. <br />The dredge owned by Transit Mix of Pueblo is on a small floating barge and includes the <br />pump, cutting head, and hydraulics to guide the hose. The dredge is powered by a 300 hp <br />Detroit diesel engine. A silt and water mix will be pumped in the eight inch hose over to <br />a pit in Phase 7. The dredging and silt filling into Phase 7 will occur at the end of <br />mining. A pit will be left in the southwest corner of Phase 7. The overflow water from <br />this pit will drain back to the southern originating pond. Thus the water needed to move <br />the silt is circulating back to the originating pond and used again. <br />Regarding the volume of silt available: <br />Smaller northern pond: 3 feet of water over 10 feet of silt <br />(10' * 200' * 150') / 27 = 11,100 cy silt <br />Larger southern pond: 6 feet of water over +22 feet of silt <br />(22' * 425' * 200') / 27 = 69,200 cy silt <br />The total volume of available silt is 80,300 cy and is more than the 76,849 cy called for in <br />the reclamation plan. Also remember that more silt is being deposited each year as <br />material is washed. When pumped to its final place, the silt will be in the groundwater <br />again and will retain some of its water volume. This dredging and filling plan also <br />benefits the overall operation by cleaning out the final settling ponds and decreasing the <br />turbidity of the discharge water to the River. <br />1 <br />