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2013 and ending April 24, 2013. No comments were received by the Division concerning the <br />renewal. The Applicant Violator System (AVS) was queried for any non - compliance issues <br />relating to OMLLC. On October 30, 2013, the AVS gave an "issue" recommendation. <br />Description of the Environment <br />The surface permitted area consists of 15,676.51 acres: 10,125.51 acres are federally owned <br />(USFS and BLM) and 5,551 acres are privately -owned lands. The coal reserve owners include <br />Oxbow Mining, LLC, other private entities and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. <br />Surface facilities are located in the Elk Creek, Bear Creek, Hubbard Creek and Sanborn Creek <br />drainages on the north side of the North Fork of the Gunnison River. Mining areas include <br />workings under the Hubbard Creek, Elk Creek, Bear Creek and Coal Gulch drainages. Workings <br />in the Sanborn Creek East Tract have undermined A, B, C and Hoopla Gulches, Bardine Canyon, <br />Hawk's Nest Creek and an unnamed tributary of Thompson Creek. Hubbard Creek is a perennial <br />tributary of the North Fork and provides both domestic and agricultural supplies of water. Bear <br />Creek, Elk Creek and Sanborn Creek are intermittent streams. Coal Gulch, the unnamed <br />drainage, A, B and C Gulches, Hawk's Nest Creek, Hoopla Gulch, Bardine Canyon and <br />Thompson Creek are all ephemeral drainages that flow to the North Fork. <br />The North Fork River Basin contains a developed water supply providing agricultural water to <br />the fruit growing region of the North Fork Valley. The North Fork River enters the main stem of <br />the Gunnison River approximately 25 miles southwest of the Elk Creek Mine. The drainage <br />basin of the North Fork is mountainous, bounded to the east by the Raggeds and Huntsman <br />Ridge, to the South by the West Elk Mountains, and to the North by Grand Mesa. Elevations in <br />the basin range from 13,058 feet atop Mt. Owen in the Ruby Range, to 5,100 feet at the <br />confluence of the North Fork of the Gunnison and Gunnison Rivers. The town of Somerset, <br />Colorado, immediately adjacent to the Elk Creek Mine, is at an elevation of 6,045 feet. <br />Ground reconnaissance during 1978, 1979 and 1980 identified Elk No. 1 Spring as the only <br />location with ground water surfacing within the original permit area, and this had a flow rate of <br />less than one gallon per minute. It is concluded that there is no large ground water reservoir in <br />the area. <br />Western Slope Carbon identified and monitored 11 springs within or adjacent to the Sanborn <br />East Tract. Monitoring records are available from 1983 through 1987. Somerset Mining <br />Company, now Oxbow Mining, LLC, resumed monitoring these springs in July 1992. Springs 1 <br />through 6 are located along the north boundary of the Sanborn East Tract in the northern portion <br />of Section 2. Springs 7 through 11 are located along the southern boundary of the new tract. <br />The locations of the springs are shown on Map 2.04 -M5. <br />With Permit Revision No. 5 (PR -05), Oxbow Mining LLC undertook a new survey of surface <br />water resources in the Elk Creek Mine tract. While there are no adjudicated water resources in <br />that tract, the USFS and USBLM requested that OMLLC inventory the resources. Resources <br />identified were added to Map 2.04 -M5. <br />7 <br />