Reports show both councils are proposing to grant resource consents for the Barrytown mine, under certain conditions, despite its proximity to a coastal lagoon, wetland and future significant natural areas (SNAs). The company plans to excavate to a maximum depth of 15 metres, potentially lowering the water table at times by 30 millimetres to 150mm. The impact on streams and groundwater would be monitored and, if necessary, water reinjected into the aquifer, according to the regional council staff report. Barrytown JVL had reduced the size of its mining operation from 115ha to 63ha, and no longer planned to divert Collins Creek. The company had also reduced its consent term from 15 years to 13 years to reflect a proposed mining duration of eight years, and would create buffer strips along the lagoon and other site boundaries, the report said.
David Krause/The Aspen Times
Smoke rises from the Collins Creek prescribed fire north of Aspen as seen from the Snowmass Village Golf Course on Friday, May 7, 2021.
David Krause/The Aspen Times
The U.S. Forest Service continues to keep an eye on the site of the Collins Creek prescribed fire this week after a successful 1,200-acre burn several miles north of Aspen near Woody Creek on Friday, according to a USFS news release.
“Everything went really well,” Forest Service Public Affairs Officer David Boyd said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon. “No control issues, looked like it was a good burn. It was putting up a lot of smoke for a while, and that’s because there was so much fuel in there.”