2012-08-21_HYDROLOGY - M1992069 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Dear Mike, Michael C. Refer West Central Region, Inc. -- Aggregate Industries 1707 Cole Blvd., Suite 100 Golden, CO 80401 DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES DIVISION OF WATER RESOURCES August 14, 2012 Re: 83"' toint . enture 'it, ata F Street Pi l (M- t992=06 )- r.� o s John W. Hickenlooper Governor Mike King Executive Director Dick Wolfe, P.E. RECWWWtite Engineer �UG212012 Division of Reclamation, Mining & Safety I've reviewed your letter to Dick Wolfe dated July 27, 2012 regarding the above - referenced gravel pit, and spoken to you on August 13, 2012 about the pit. For this particular pit, the landowner has held ditch shares with the Vent of using them as the source of replacement water for the permanent augmentation plan for the site. According to your letter, even though the ditch shares had been "committed," due to economic circumstances, the landowner sold the ditch shares to the City of Greely and the City of Greeley does not plan to honor the commitment of the shares to providing augmentation water for the site. I understand that now, Aggregate Industries ( "Al "), as the operator, is treating this as a legal matter with the intent of resolving it; the final resolution being a permanent source of water dedicated to the replacement of depletions at the site. You have pointed out the conflict between the current situation and the following language from guideline 16 of our gravel pit guidelines: If the proposed final reclamation of the mining operation, as approved in the DRMS permit, does not include backfilling or lining to eliminate all ground water exposed within the mining boundaries, sufficient replacement water must be dedicated to the plan, or financial assurance that would allow purchase of replacement water to cover the expected depletions that would occur at the site. Failure to comply with the guideline does not cause injury in and of itself; rather, the objective of the guideline is to help ensure a proper transition between the active mining of the pit and the existence of the long -term reclaimed site. In this specific situation, since the current lack of a permanent source of replacement water was the result of the landowner's actions, not Al's, and since Al is actively working to address the requirement of a permanent source of replacement water for this pit, we have determined that it is acceptable to allow a time period for resolution of the situation. Therefore, until such time as the requirement is met, as long as Al is diligently working toward resolution, the State Engineer's Office will continue to approve the substitute