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Response to Written Comments Page 2 of 11 09 October 2023 Forward Landfill, Inc. 1.) The Regional Water Quality Control Board Response to 1 st set of written comments for the Forward Landfill dated 10/11 August 2023 "Response To Questions" (to be shortened to RTC from here forward). The RTC I received and the RTC that is posted to your website are different, why is that? The one I received had 41 comments, the one on your website now has 52. Why did you not update me with the 2nd version? This makes me think you have something to hide. RESPONSE: A pdf version of the Response to 1 st Set of Written Comments for the then circulated Tentative Waste Discharge Requirements Order No. R5-2021-XXXX were emailed to interested parties. Due to web content accessibility guidelines, the document format was changed and updated to be posted on the website. This in turn fixed issues with numbering and references that were seen in the pdf version. Both documents have the same responses and total number of response to comments. COMMENT NO. 2: 2.) From the 2nd paragraph of the RTC, I would like to know how the recent high rainfall and high meltwater flows have impacted the facility with regards to surface impoundment and potential release, as these responses were prior to the high rainfall and high runoff event of this season? Secondly, how has this impacted the plume and are any mitigation efforts being proposed, as these high rainfall events are probably more likely than not. RESPONSE: The average rainfall depth that was seen in the area during the November 2022 to April 2023 (wet season) was 3.8 inches, with the highest precipitation depth at 8.5 inches for December 2022 (Station ID SOC, www.ncei.noaa.gov). Compared to the average of the highest 5 years precipitation data from 1919 to 2020 (data from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu), there was in increase in the amount of rainfall depth that was received in December 2022 and March 2023. December 2022 received 8.5 inches compared to an average of 2.45 inches and March 2023 saw 5.23 inches compared to an average of 4.42 inches. Forward Inc. brought in ten temporary liquid storage tanks to supplement the leachate storage capacity of the surface impoundments during the 2022-2023 winter season. An analysis was conducted to assess the effects of recent rainfall activity and how groundwater elevations changed from the Fourth Quarter 2022 Water Quality Monitoring Report (WQMR) to the First Quarter 2023 WQMR. Groundwater elevations were sampled between 10/28/2022 to 11/9/2022 and 1/24/2023 to 2/10/2023 in the Fourth Quarter 2022 WQMR and First Quarter 2023 WQMR, respectively. All the groundwater wells with sufficient comparable data (4 out of 87 wells did not have elevations for Fourth Quarter 2022) saw an increase in water levels from one reporting season to the next and ranged from 0.75 feet to 45.4 feet. Out of 87 groundwater wells