2013-04-23_PERMIT FILE - M2013007

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Division of Reclamation, Safety and Mining 1313 Sherman St. Room 215 Denver, CO 80203 Re: File # M- 2013 -007 April 23, 2013 Dear Division, RECEIVED 4PR 7 2013 - DIVISION OF R €OLAMATION MINING AND SAFETY I am writing this letter in opposition to permit file number M- 2013 -007 also known as the Uncompahgre Gravel Pit application in Montrose County, Colorado. My husband, two children and I live within less than 2 air miles of the land proposed to house this site. My objections have to do with the size and scope of the project and in turn the amount of traffic it would generate. I am also concerned with the amount of noise, dust, and contaminants it would produce which would greatly affect the air quality of the surrounding area. Lastly, I do not believe that it is needed as there are already enough local gravel pits to supply demand. Because this is such a large development it is estimated that with the concrete and asphalt batch plant in operation there is the potential for 130 loads daily which equals 260 semi trucks entering and exiting onto Highway 550 per day. Living in this rural area my family and I commute into town every day, sometimes having to make numerous trips in one day. Thus we spend a lot of time on the stretch of highway that would be most utilized by these trucks. This is an already very dangerous section of road with many accidents and fatalities. Ironically, just this morning the kids and I witnessed a horrific traffic accident on the way to school. There was a fatality and a dump /gravel truck was involved. Because of the high rate of accidents due to wildlife on the roadway, it is already a designated wildlife zone in which speed limits are decreased during the winter months after 5pm. I am extremely concerned that such a huge increase in truck traffic will make traveling Highway 550 south of Montrose even more hazardous. Currently there is a United Companies gravel pit in operation approximately 2 miles south of the proposed Uncompahgre Pit. Since I travel the highway on a regular basis, I have had numerous encounters with excess gravel and even cobbles which made the highway impassible all spilled from trucks traveling from the United pit. I am also concerned that these types of incidents would only increase with yet another gravel pit operating on the same stretch of road. Because I also live just down the road from the current gravel pit, I am familiar with how much noise is generated when a gravel pit is in full operation, particularly when the rock crushers are running. The noise level along this highway and valley corridor is what I would consider to be very loud just with the traffic noise alone. Adding more traffic and the noise from the daily operations of a gravel pit would push it to an almost unbearable limit for those of us who live in this area. In the springtime we have excessive wind storms which when strong enough will carry dust from the deserts to the south and west of us and deposit that dust all over the area. At times the dust is even we e