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INFORMATION SHEET WASTE DISCHARGE REQUIREMENTS ORDER NO. R5-2010-0123 FOR H.M. HOLLOWAY, INC. H.M. HOLLOWAY SURFACE MINE LANDFILL PROJECT KERN COUNTY H.M. Holloway, Inc. (hereafter Discharger) owns and operates an open-pit gypsum mine located on Holloway Road in Lost Hills. The 301-acre mining facility (facility) contains four depleted mine pit areas, covering 172 acres, that have been designated for waste disposal. The depleted gypsum mine pits are reclaimed by discharging up to 2,000 tons per day of industrial waste consisting of ash, lime cake, treated automobile shredder waste (predominately nonmetallic, solid material including plastic, broken glass, rubber, foam, soil, and fabric), concrete and cement construction rubble, asphalt products (e.g., roofing shingles, reclaimed road surface materials, etc.), and shredded automobile tires. The Central Valley Water Board adopted Order 97-078, in which the facility was designated as an unclassified waste disposal site for the discharge of specific industrial wastes pursuant to Title 23, California Code of Regulations, Section 2510 et seq. (Chapter 15). The proposed Order revises the existing Waste Discharge Requirements to classify the depleted mine pits as Class III landfills pursuant to Title 27, California Code of Regulations, Section 20005 et seq. (Title 27), and revises the list of wastes allowed for discharge to include spent sandblast media and dewatered Class A and Class B municipal biosolids; and to exclude sulfur, shredded plastic, concrete and cement construction rubble, asphalt products, shredded automobile tires and drilling mud. The climate in the southern San Joaquin Valley is semi-arid, with hot, dry summers and cool winters. The average annual precipitation is 5.95 inches with an annual evaporation rate of 67.59 inches. The facility is not within a 100-year flood zone according to FEMA maps. The soils underlying the facility consist of a thick sequence (maximum depth of investigation 50 feet beneath the mine pits) of consolidated soils dominated by silts and low-to-medium plasticity clays. Between 15 and 50% montmorillinite clay was identified by X-ray diffraction in soil samples collected from the upper 25 feet of soil beneath Pit E. The hydraulic conductivity of the soils underlying the Units ranges between 1x10-7 and 1x10-10 centimeters per second. The site is not within a known fault hazard zone. The first encountered groundwater occurs in thin, laterally discontinuous and vertically stratified sand lenses found at depths ranging between 60 and 120 feet below the ground surface, or between 20 and 38 feet below the base of the Units. Groundwater elevations range from 323 feet mean sea level (MSL) to 348 feet MSL. The groundwater is unconfined. Monitoring data indicates background groundwater quality has an electrical conductivity (EC) ranging between 5,300 and 10,500 micromhos/cm, and concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) ranging from 4,900 to 7,460 milligrams per liter (mg/1) with an average concentration of 6,015 mg/I. The recommended secondary maximum contaminant level (MCL) of TDS for drinking water is 500 mg/1. The first encountered groundwater exceeds the primary MCL for drinking water for selenium and nitrate. Selenium ranged from 57 to 219 micrograms per liter (pg/1) and nitrate as nitrate ranged from 14 to 598 mg/1.