SEELEY LAKE – The Department of Environmental Quality notified Deer Creek Excavating, LLC’s that their revised application submitted Aug. 9 for an Opencut Mining Permit at the Cottonwood Pit Site in Powell County still contains deficiencies that must be corrected prior to approving the application. The revised application was in response to DEQ’s Nov. 28, 2018 Deficiency Notice.
If Deer Creek Excavating still wants to pursue the application, they can appeal DEQ’s decision within 30 days or submit a revised application that resolves all deficiencies within a year. If DEQ deems the revised application acceptable, the application will be approved. If the revised application materials do not resolve all deficiencies, DEQ will disapprove the application and issue a Deficiency Notice.
The proposed Cottonwood Pit is 26.5 acres located approximately four miles east of Seeley Lake in Powell County. Owner of Deer Creek Excavating, LLC Gary Lewis will be operating the pit.
DEQ identified 38 deficiencies in the revised application including the Seeley Lake/Missoula County Airport, protection of water resources, specific application deficiencies, map deficiencies and inconsistencies in the supplemental documents. Due to substantial changes in the revised permit application, new deficiencies were created through the addition of new information, changing application answers and/or boxes that were checked.
Deer Creek Excavating has until Oct. 9, 2020 to resubmit a revised application or the application will be abandoned and void. Once a revised application is submitted DEQ can either approve the application or issue another Deficiency Notice at which time Deer Creek Excavating will have another year to address the issues.
The Aug. 9 permit application can be viewed at https://searchopencutpermits.mt.gov/ by entering “2864” in the “Opencut #” box and clicking the “Submit” button.
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