Silver Creek Watershed Stakeholders’ Group

Silver Creek Watershed Stakeholders’ Group

Lower Silver Creek Work Group

Monday, May 8, 2006 – 1-4 pm

Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District

Trailside Offices (Community Room)

5715 Trailside Drive, Park City

Meeting Summary

Meeting Attendees

Michele Devaney	Summit County Planning	mdevaney@co.summit.ut.us
Nora Shepard	Summit County Planning	nshepard@co.summit.ut.us
Muhammed Slam	UDEQ / DERR	mslam@utah.gov
Kerry C. Gee	United Park City Mines	kcgee@unitedpark.com
Kathy Hernandez	EPA	hernandez.kathryn@epa.gov
Mike Luers	Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District	mluers@sbwrd.org
Brent Ovard	Summit County Health	bovard@utah.gov
John Whitehead	UDEQ / DWQ	jwhitehead@utah.gov
Michael Boyle	Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District	mboyle@sbwrd.org
Derrick Radke	Summit County Engineering	dradke@co.summit.ut.us
Sally Elliott	Summit County Commission	selliott@co.summit.ut.us
John Knudson	Utah State Parks	johnknudson@utah.gov
Chuck Zuercher	Angus & Ella Pace	chuckz@pureutah.com
Jason Gipson	Corps of Engineers	jason.a.gipson@usace.army.mil
Kari Lundeen	UDEQ / DWQ	klundeen@utah.gov
Paul Burnett	UT Div of Wildlife	paulburnett@utah.gov
Dave Burbidge	Burbidge Brothers	david.burbidge@gmail.com
Tony Cristofferson	Geneva Rock	tchristofferson@clydeinc.com
Mike Benunin	Anderson Development	mikeb@and-dev.com
Michele Straube	Facilitator	mstraube@mindspring.com

Work Group Process Design

After introductions, Michele Straube summarized the Lower Silver Creek work group convening report and its recommendations for work group design. She stated that the primary purpose of this first meeting was to identify and integrate known environmental information about the Lower Silver Creek work group area, with the intention of presenting this synthesized knowledge to the full work group at a subsequent meeting. No substantive discussions or decisions about Lower Silver Creek were on the agenda for this first meeting.

The group agreed that the south-north boundaries of the Lower Silver Creek work group area should be State Route 248 and Atkinson (aka “the dairy”). Later discussions reflected that the east-west boundaries of the work group area follow the floodplain and contours of the land. These geographic boundaries will be confirmed by the full work group.

Several additional stakeholder interests were identified that had not been included in the convening report:

Derrick Radke, Summit County Engineer
Brian Kimball, US Geological Survey (data resource)
Michael Luers, Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District.

These stakeholders will be added to the work group, and the question will be revisited with the full work group.

The group reviewed the Statement of Goals adopted by the Silver Creek Watershed Stakeholders’ Group and suggested the following changes to make them more relevant to the Lower Silver Creek work group’s efforts:

Refer to the Summit County general plan and Lower Silver Creek in paragraphs 1.2.1 and 1.2.2.
Refer to achieving compliance with the TMDL, to the extent possible.

The work group’s Statement of Goals will be reviewed by the full work group at its next meeting.

Known Information about Silver Creek Area

Kari Lundeen gave a summary of water quality and soils contamination information available for the Lower Silver Creek work group area, drawn from the following resources:

Innovative Assessment Analytical Results Report, Lower Silver Creek, Summit County, Utah. Prepared by Ann M. Tillia, Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Environmental Response and Remediation. Final dated 9/25/02. (Available at UDEQ/DERR)
TMDL for Silver Creek. (Available at: http://www.waterquality.utah.gov/TMDL/SilverCreekFinalTMDL_11-15-04.pdf )
Fish Consumption Advisory for Trout from Silver Creek. Utah Department of Environmental Quality. 10/27/04. (Available at: http://www.deq.utah.gov/News/2004/fish_advisory_info_sheet_102704.pdf )
Water Resources of the Park City Area, Utah with Emphasis on Ground Water. Utah Department of Natural Resources (UDEQ/DERR) and US Geological Survey (USGS). Technical Publication No. 85. 1986.

(Available at UDEQ/DWQ ??)

Principal Locations of Metal Loading from Floodplain Tailings, Lower Silver Creek, Utah, April 2004. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), prepared in cooperation with UDEQ. Draft 2005. (Currently at UDEQ / DWQ offices; not yet circulated to other agencies or entities)

Quantification of Metal Loading to Silver Creek Through the Silver Maple Claims Area, Park City, Utah, May 2002. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), prepared in cooperation with BLM and UDEQ. Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4296. 2004. (Available at EPA and UDEQ).

The following additional information is available:

Informal boundaries of wetlands, based on requests for 404 permits and national wetlands inventory – Corps of Engineers
Mapping of 100-year floodplain – Corps of Engineers and Summit County Engineer
Aerial photograph of meadow area – Corps of Engineers
Aerial photograph of Lower Silver Creek Area, from which topographic map can be generated – United Park City Mines
Land ownership information (plat map) – Summit County Planning
Fish / amphibian data (from 5 years ago) – UT Division of Wildlife Resources
Quarterly information about metals coming into and leaving the water treatment plant – Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District
Additional water quality sampling since TMDL – UDEQ / DWQ
Aerial photograph from 2003 – GIS consortium

The GIS consortium will be updating aerial photography during the fall of 2006. They will need to know specific needs to include in their effort by mid-summer 2006.

Landowners and developers are particularly interested in the following information:

an overlay of property ownership information and known wetlands
an overlay of property ownership information and known tailings / areas of soil contamination, and
easements (e.g., conservation, access) and other land development restrictions.

The following topics were suggested for the next work group meeting:

an overlay of property ownership information and known wetlands – to be created by Jason Gipson, Corps of Engineers, using the UPCM aerial photograph, Summit County property ownership information, and Corps of Engineers wetland delineations
an overlay of property ownership information and known tailings / areas of soil contamination – to be created by Kathy Hernandez, EPA, using UDEQ/DERR data, 100-year floodplain information, and Summit County property ownership information; lead and arsenic will be the marker metals
more detailed information on the additional sampling that UDEQ hopes to conduct in the Lower Silver Creek area this summer, as well as the alternatives analysis that EPA wishes to have conducted under contract
information on the health and ecological risks presented by the Lower Silver Creek area – to be presented by Scott Everett, UDEQ toxicologist, in collaboration with UDEQ technical staff and EPA
a brief history of the Silver Creek Watershed Stakeholders’ Group process, as well as perspectives on addressing watershed issues collaboratively – Sally Elliott and Kerry Gee
a brief summary of the regulatory context in which any remediation activity will have to take place.

The following topics of discussion were identified for future work group discussions:

need for a lead bioavailability study
need for a tailings repository, other than Richardson Flats

Ongoing Public Outreach

The existing watershed stakeholders’ group website (www.silvercreekpc.org) is currently being maintained by United Park City Mines. Kerry Gee stated that they are willing to continue updating the website as additional information is provided to them, including adding a section for the Lower Silver Creek work group.

Next Work Group Meeting

The next Lower Silver Creek work group meeting will be held Monday, June 5, 2006, from 1 – 5 pm, at the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District Trailside Offices (Park Room), 5715 Trailside Drive, Park City.