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iii uiiiiiiiiiii iii 999 ~~iG~~ 3 N f~~/l / y//~ / `~Y(~. ~~alv Feds investigate Telluride Gravel _ by Morgan Lee Federal officials are investi-• gating what they term a possible ,: major violation of environmental taws in the Ilium Valley, approxi- 4nately five miles west of Tellu- ride. ' ,According to U.S. Forest Ser- vice spokesman Matt Glasgow, Telluride Gravel's Ilium Plant has rtA~voyed 7 yi acres of U.S. :st Service lands in recent yeah, in the course of removing 1 I g cubic yards of gravel from the area surrounding the cdnflueoce of the San Miguel River and its Soulh Fork. Division of Wildlife Biologist Rick Sherman, who vis- ited the plant two weeks ago, charges that regulators have over- looked the vespassing and other environmental violations for years. Sherman and US FS biologist Leff Cameron were called in two weeks ago to assess the gravel mine's damage to public lands. ,.iThey found the habitat surround- ing the mine severely degraded; Sherman was espr;cially con- cerned by the "loss of cotton wood veer and the degradation of po- tential fishery habit~.t. '"l'he mine has a long history of water quality violations;' says Sherman, who is writing a letter alerting officials at .he Environ- mental Protection .Agency, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Arrtty Corps of Engineers to the Ilium violations.'"The EPA should definitely be involved," Sherman says. "The plant is adversely af- fectinghabitats both upsveam and downsVeam:' On Mazch 27, the U.S. Army Corps ad vised Telluride Gravel to apply fora permit to comply with section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The Corps also notified the EPA that Telluride Gravel had been told to apply for the permit. Sherman questions why the USFS and the Army Corps failed to take action on the vespassing and degradation of the San Miguel River habitat earlier. '"The Forest Service District Aanger over- looked this for years, It seems the Forest Service stood by and let continued on page 17