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d. Water Resources The Arkansas River Basin is the largest river basin in Colorado covering an area of 28,268 square miles or 27% of the surface area of the state (Colorado Water Conservation Board 2006). The headwaters of the Arkansas River begins near Leadville at an elevation of more than 14,000 feet and drops to 3,340 feet as it travels through southeast Colorado to the Colorado/Kansas state line. In Chaffee County, the main tributaries include Clear, Pine, Cottonwood, Browns, Trout, and Ute Creeks and the South Arkansas River. The Arkansas River developed following the Laramide Orogeny and subsequent creation of the Rio Grande rift in central Colorado and New Mexico. Surface runoff from the eastern side of the rift flowed towards the center of the basin, forming the Arkansas River. Originally the river flowed south and met with the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley. Volcanic activity later blocked the river near Poncha Pass and caused the river to flow east towards the Great Plains (Colorado State Parks 2002 as cited in Topper et al. 2003). The water quality in the Arkansas River headwaters has been affected by the mining activity in the Leadville Area. Several reservoirs and lakes in the Upper Arkansas Basin store water from transmountain sources and local sources to meet the demand for expanded water use in the region, and thereby protecting stream depletions (Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District 2000. These include: Twin Lakes and Turquoise Lake reservoirs that primarily hold waters transferred from the Colorado River Basin and diverted through the Busk - Ivanhoe, Boustead and Twin Lakes tunnels. i. Surface Water- 1. Cache Creek Drainage Characteristics Cache Creek drains through Lost Canyon and discharges to the Arakasas River near the historical town of Granite. There is no publicly available surface quality or quantity data for Cache Creek that characterizes surface water flow or water quality characteristics. The general drainage delineation above Gold Basin Mine is illustrated on Figure G-2. Gold Basin Mine has approved water rights with a non-consumptive water use. Since placer mining utilizes surface water and no chemicals of concern are used, impacts to groundwater will not occur. The general basin hydrologic conditions are summarized in Table E-1. The Upper Cache Creek (Figure E-2) drainage stream gradient within a 250 foot horizontal distance has a vertical drop of 55 feet. (Exhibit E-Attachment C) The horizontal to vertical slope is 221/o (4.5(H): I (V) Table E- 2.1. December 28, 2014 Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety Gold Basin Mine, Inc. Gold Basin Mine Granite, Colorado 5 W Q.