2012-01-23_APPLICATION CORRESPONDENCE - C2010088 (3)

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Description of the Environment The Fruita Loadout is located approximately 3 miles northwest of the city of Fruita and 1.3 miles southeast of the town of Loma, Colorado. The permit area is located north of the Colorado River and is situated between State Highway 6 & 50 and Interstate 70. The permit area is found on USGS Mack, Colo. 7.5 minute topographic map. See Figure 1 at the end of this document for further detail. The permit and adjacent area lie within western Mesa County. Private lands are under the jurisdictions of Mesa County and the city of Fruita. Existing land uses within the permit and adjacent area consist of industrial, agricultural, rangeland, fish and wildlife and a transportation corridor. There is some weedy vegetation and native shrubs covering parts of the site, along with Tamarisk trees and other native grasses and shrubs lining the surface waterways. These surface water bodies include Reed Wash and the Loma Drain, both traversing the site in a general northeast- southwest direction and flowing toward the nearby Colorado River. The site adjoins the former Fruita Refinery to the east. To the south there are former evaporation ponds and undeveloped areas. There are private residential and rural agricultural lands to the west and northwest. A main railroad corridor and highway easement are located to the north, beyond which are agricultural lands. The site and adjacent lands were undeveloped or in agricultural use prior to the start of a refinery operation in 1957 by the American Gilsonite Company. The refinery originally processed gilsonite (i.e., bitumen: a naturally- occurring solid or semi -solid hydrocarbon) ore into liquid products and petroleum coke. Gilsonite was mined and transported via pipeline, in slurry form about 72 miles from the Bonanza mining district to the refinery complex from 1957 to 1973. The refinery was later converted to process conventional crude oils into liquids and coke. Gary Energy Corporation (Gary) purchased the operation in December 1973 and produced gasoline and diesel fuel, jet fuel, naphtha, vacuum gas oil, heavy fuel oil, calcined petroleum coke and liquefied petroleum gas. Refinery operations continued through about 1993, with several owners /operators including Gary, WSRC, and Landmark Petroleum. The land east of Reed Wash is currently unused and is a remnant of the former petroleum refinery operations to the east. The portion of the site west of Reed Wash is undeveloped. There are wetland areas west of Reed Wash. Industrial operations formerly occurred in the eastern part of the site, where several large impoundments were utilized as evaporation ponds and landfarm areas for refinery- generated waters and waste materials. There are several landfill areas at the site, where coke fines are buried, along with a 7 -acre closed landfill which contains solidified acid - sludge material. The acid - sludge waste cell is a mounded and soil- capped square area, about 7 acres in size, near the site's northeast corner. The waste cell contains approximately 85,000 cubic yards of solidified acid sludge. This area is subject to the post - closure operation and maintenance requirements specified in Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's (CDPHE's) solid waste regulations, which primarily include erosion control of the landfill cap.