{"id":1315957,"date":"2019-10-22T17:14:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T23:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=989919"},"modified":"2019-10-22T17:14:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T23:14:44","slug":"rmr-may-be-using-water-study-to-drill-exploratory-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rmr-may-be-using-water-study-to-drill-exploratory-holes\/","title":{"rendered":"RMR may be using water study to drill exploratory holes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Rocky Mountain Resources quarry north of the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is shown in this October 2018 file photo.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

RMR Industrials is trying to
\nuse a water study to drill exploratory holes at its quarry without a county
\npermit, according to Garfield County staff.<\/p>\n

The hydrology study is one of several required scientific studies needed before the Bureau of Land Management begins an environmental review of RMR\u2019s quarry expansion proposal.<\/p>\n

But in the August request letter<\/a>, RMR also said it is seeking \u201cpermission to keep any core from the five test holes for exploration purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

If RMR goes through with drilling, that could once again put the company in violation of county code.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed action is not a typical baseline study, rather it is instead an exploratory drilling program that is part of RMR\u2019s overall development expansion activity,\u201d county manager Fred Jarman said Monday.<\/p>\n

The hydrology study doesn\u2019t require taking core samples of the rock, according to Jarman. RMR is proposing \u201ca core drilling technique that will retrieve rock that is unrelated to, and unnecessary, for a hydrology study,\u201d Jarman said.<\/p>\n

Jarman and other staff drafted a letter to the BLM as part of a scoping period for the proposed hydrological study.<\/p>\n

Because of the potential violation, and other environmental concerns, the county is asking the BLM to conduct a more rigorous impact review of the proposed well drilling.<\/p>\n

The BLM is considering using a categorical exclusion for the hydrology study, the lowest level of environmental review, but opened up a comment period due to the high interest in the quarry. The comment period closes on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The new exploratory drilling request is an issue of concern for
\nthe county, since RMR\u2019s special use permit, inherited when it purchased the Mid-Continent quarry from CalX, specifically prohibits exploratory drilling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf RMR proceeds with such action without a county permit, it will
\nviolate county law,\u201d Jarman said.<\/p>\n

In November 2019, the BLM used the categorical exclusion to allow RMR to drill several exploratory holes. That action in part led the county to issue a notice of violation to RMR in April. RMR has sued the county over the notice of violation, and that lawsuit is ongoing.<\/p>\n

RMR proposes drilling five exploratory monitoring wells, between 150 and 250 feet deep. The drill sites include one on the Transfer Trail leading up to the quarry, one near the top of the hill where RMR would like to start limestone extraction, and three at various points along the hillside.<\/p>\n

Beyond the exploratory drilling, the county has
\nconcerns that the water monitoring wells could damage underground caves or
\ncontaminate spring water.<\/p>\n

\u201cRMR\u2019s proposed drilling could irreparably disrupt or
\neven contaminate the intricate or interconnected system of underground caves
\nand karsts through which water flows before feeding into the Glenwood Hot
\nSprings, for example,\u201d Jarman said.<\/p>\n

Jarman also claimed that RMR
\nmisrepresented a geophysical study of the area.<\/p>\n

RMR hired outside consultants to look for potential caves near the proposed well sites, and found \u201ca few features of interest in the proposed drilling areas but only a couple that could reasonably be thought to have cave type qualities,\u201d according to their request letter.<\/p>\n

That misrepresents the actual geophysical report, Jarman said, which found a total of eight features of interest, and didn\u2019t analyze one proposed well site.<\/p>\n

The consultants concluded that \u201cIt does not appear that drilling at these locations will intersect any significant karst features to depth of approximately 170 feet,\u201d according to the karst report.<\/p>\n

The study only analyzed down to 170 feet below the surface, but RMR is requesting permission to drill down to 250 feet, Jarman noted.<\/p>\n

The BLM did not release the cave study online as part of the scoping documents online, but said they would be made available upon request.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone wants to see those documents, they\u2019re available, but the scoping is for the specific plan to drill the water wells,\u201d BLM spokesman David Boyd said.<\/p>\n

The five drill sites would be along a BLM road, the old Transfer Trail route, with minimal impact to nearby plants and trees, according to RMR.<\/p>\n

RMR said in their letter that they asked the owners of Iron Mountain Hot Springs and the Hot Springs Pool for permission to collect water samples from the private land. Both parties declined to be involved, so they will not be included in the study.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rocky Mountain Resources quarry north of the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is shown in this October 2018 file photo.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent file RMR Industrials is trying to use a water study to drill exploratory holes at its quarry without a county permit, according to Garfield County staff. The hydrology study is one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 17:03:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}