2009-05-01 TARROW - Laserfiche WebLink

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WOODWARD: All right. Any questions for this testifier? Seeing none, all right. Sir, if you’d just give us your name and address and then begin your testimony. THOMAS: My name is Robert Thomas. I’m with Construction Engineering Labs, and we’re located at 1173 Waihona Street, Pearl City. And at the request of Mr. Chamberlain, we went out and did a preliminary observation of the property to scope out our investigative measures and to address any concerns that the Commission and Planning Department may have in the development of the property as a mining site. As we approached the site, I noticed that there were a number of uncontrolled 1-acre mines under operation and had significant concern. And I can commend and understand your concerns for proper slope stability and setbacks from the property lines. And Mr. Chamberlain is to be commended for not mining his property until those proper measures have been taken. Taking a look at the materials that we have along those slopes, I had a lot of concerns with the prior mining operations and the vertical cuts that were made right up to the property lines themselves. And I learned today that there was an accident previously that resulted in the death, and Mining Safety and Health Administration has become involved. In taking a look at the property and taking a look at perspective yields from this property we’re going in the direction of recommending a minimum of five- to ten-acre plot for mining operations to adequately address the safety concerns as well as the economics. Breaking up the lots into smaller zones with slopes and setbacks will definitely cut into the potential yield of this area. We are looking at stabilizing the slopes with a system most likely comprised of the shotcrete, soil anchors and wire mesh to stabilize that slope. And I understand that Mr. Chamberlain is proposing to excavate down to at least a 100-foot depth below the existing grades, maybe even deeper depending upon stability concerns and resources. I also wanted to address the Commission to make sure that our investigation and our report meet all of your concerns and questions, and cover any areas including MPDS concerns for this particular property. WOODWARD: I’ll direct that to the Planning Director. LEITHEAD TODD: Our biggest concerns in this area, some of the items that you mentioned is that in some of the prior lots because they are one-acre, only 83-feet wide, and guys have done vertical cuts, it has led to areas where we’ve been concerned about stability of the nearby roads and also the impact to neighboring properties. Because, you know, there’s one lot which is going to come in, and it’s kind of in a strange situation. It’s a one-acre lot. But what happened is everybody excavated around him. So even though it’s a one-acre lot, what he has is property that is sitting 78 to 56 feet above what has been mined around him. So he wants to be able to come in and basically bring his lot down to try and meet what has already occurred, because otherwise he has got these vertical slopes and not much width. And we were looking at perspectively trying to go in the direction that Arrow of Oregon is talking about in terms of having minimum operational sizes of at least five acres because we wanted some slope stability. 2 EXHIBIT C