2016-10-03_REVISION - C1981008 (4)

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September 30, 2016 RECEIVED OCT 0 3 Uld Mr. Jared Ebert Environmental Protection Specialist KiLd® Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety Department of Natural Resources 1313 Sherman Street, Room 215 Denver, CO 80203 Certified Return Receipt Mail #70150920000000661610 RE: New Horizon Mine, Permit No. C-1981-008, Technical Revision No. 75 Dear Jared; We are in receipt of your letter dated September 26, 2016, and reply to your question in paragraph two. Prior to mining activities, all lands within the mining permit were originally irrigated by either flood irrigation or furrow irrigation utilizing open irrigation ditches that were constructed by the settlers of the Tabeguache First Park (Nucla and adjacent and contiguous vicinity) in the late 1800's early 1900's. As time progressed and technology introduced different irrigation methods, each land owner may or may not have opted to use something different than flood/furrow irrigation techniques. As for our property, all prior owners continued to use the flood/furrow irrigation method in which they would divert water from the open supply ditches to individual distribution ditches that traversed the irrigated fields and by placing portable dams or diversion gates in the banks of the distribution ditches, it would allow for waters to back up and overflow along sections to irrigate that portion of the fields. Once the water saturated that particular area, the water (waste water or tail waters) were caught in another ditch and then the process began all over again until the tail waters were reused until the elevation terminated the natural gravity flow. In the 1993 photo we had attached in or objection letter, the open ditches along with the area being irrigated from overflowing the distribution ditches can be seen. Since the Coal Mine has mined through the irrigated fields and reclaimed topography without replacing the irrigation distribution ditches, the New Horizon Mine has elected to use a modern irrigation distribution system. Without a modern irrigation distribution system, it will create an "Economical Empact" and burden the landowner with having to expense and come up with a means to irrigate the lands that have been irrigated prior to mining disruption activities. As the New Horizon Mine has found out from trying the flood/furrow irrigation technique on their own land (known as the Benson West parcel and the Lloyd parcel) for two seasons and the irrigation water sinking into the reclaimed land since it is no longer virgin and naturally compacted sub soils, they have now installed a modern irrigation distribution systems on both parcels in order to place water at an even coverage across the entire parcels. If the New Horizon Mine were to reinstall the distribution ditches and use a Mormon Creaser to reinstall furrows to flood/furrow irrigate, it would no doubt see the same situation that happened on New Horizon's Benson West and Lloyd parcels when flood/furrow irrigation was attempted. Please refer to the following: