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Conservationist for the SCS (Norwood office) issued a letter stating that there was no prime <br />farmland within the boundary of Mine 2 (Attachment 2.04.9 -6). The letter does state that Barx <br />fine sandy loam has the potential to be prime if it is irrigated with an adequate and dependable <br />supply of water. Enclosed with the letter was a copy of the San Miguel Area Soil Survey map, <br />with the permit area (approximately 220 acres at the time) delineated. It is not clear, from the <br />documentation, whether the SCS in 1992 had access to Peabody's 1987 and 1988 Order 1 survey <br />of the area. The October 1992 negative determination for prime farmland appears to have been <br />based on the San Miguel Area Soil Survey map, which shows only a miniscule area of Barx soil <br />(map unit 15) in the extreme southeastern corner. The letter concludes, "Based on... visit to the <br />site and experience with available irrigation water supplies in this area, the Barx unit is not <br />prime." <br />Because of its location, the 15 acres of Barx (D70B) soil mapped for Peabody was disturbed by <br />the earliest phases of mining at Mine 2. Annual Reclamation Reports (ARRs) submitted by <br />WFC indicate that the area was backfilled, topsoiled and seeded in 1994, and that, in 1995, 6.73 <br />acres were re- topsoiled and seeded. In December 1995, in Section IV of Midterm Review No. 3, <br />the Division required revisions of the permit to address several concerns. Among these was Item <br />12 (topsoil balance and potential availability of excess D70B to supplement other areas). WFC <br />responded, in a letter received January 12, 1996, that all available D70B topsoil was salvaged <br />and stockpiled, as required. However, the volume of D70B was substantially less than what had <br />been anticipated based on the soil survey. Once distributed, the available quantity had been <br />sufficient to reclaim only 6.73 acres (all on the Staats parcel), rather than 14.6 acres. Although <br />there was some confusion over whether the 15 acres of Barx soil was or was not prime farmland, <br />the Division found, in the findings for the subsequent PR -4, that the land in question had been <br />reclaimed to prime farmland standards as far as topsoil handling and replacement depths were <br />concerned. <br />In April 1996, WFC submitted an application for Permit Revision No. 4 (PR -4), which added <br />100.7 acres to the New Horizon Mine 2 permit area (the Garvey and Burbridge parcels, south of <br />BB Road and immediately east of 2700 Road). The soil survey, conducted by Intermountain <br />Resource Inventories in February 1996, identified no Barx soils within the expansion area. On <br />March 29, 1996, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) issued a negative <br />determination for prime farmlands (Attachment 2.04.9 -6) for the expansion area. PR -4 was <br />approved on December 9, 1996. <br />The March 29, 1996 NRCS letter references the document, "Colorado Important Farmland <br />Inventory" (CIFI), prepared by the USDA in 1982 (Attachment 2.04.9 -5). The CIFI lists specific <br />USDA criteria, all of which prime farmlands must meet. Item 3 on the list requires a "pH <br />between 4.5 and 8.4 in all horizons within a depth of 40 inches or in the root zone if the root <br />zone is less than 40 inches deep ". In addition, certain modifications and /or interpretations of the <br />National Criteria for Prime Farmlands were applied to Colorado, including (Item 4): "irrigated <br />soils with bedrock within 40 inches of the surface and soil horizons that have a pH higher than <br />7.4 are considered as having high conductivity and therefore not prime ". <br />Permit Revision No. 5 (PR -5) added 476.9 acres to the permit and was approved on April 24, <br />2000. Intermountain Resource Inventories (IRI) conducted an Order 1 survey of the proposed <br />17 <br />