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SOILS RESOURCE INFORMATION <br />INTRODUCTION <br />The New Horizon North Mine area is located in the W 1/2 of Section 25, Township 47 North, <br />Range 16 West of the New Mexico principal meridian. Approximately one third of this mine <br />permit area corresponds to the original NH Mine area previously permitted by Peabody Coal <br />Company (PCC), in connection with a permit application submitted in April 1980 and approved <br />in May 1983 as Permit No. C-1981-008. Other portions of the New Horizon North Mine permit <br />area were permitted and mined prior to 1973 as a portion of the Navajo and Nucla strip mines <br />which were mined by the Edna Coal Company starting in 1958 and subsequently by PCC until <br />1992, when WFC purchased the property and renamed the operation the New Horizon Mine. <br />WFC herein addresses the requirements of Section 2.04.9 - Soils Resource Information by <br />summarizing the previously conducted soil resources surveys which have been conducted on and <br />immediately adjacent to the New Horizon North Mine permit area. <br />In evaluating the soils resources of this area, WFC carefully reviewed the files of PCC and made <br />a formal request of the Norwood Office of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) <br />Natural Resource Conservation Service (MRCS). Copies of previously completed soil surveys of <br />the area were obtained and their GIS database was queried to determine the extent of all <br />previously completed soils resources surveys conducted within and adjacent to the New Horizon <br />North Mine permit area. <br />A total of at least three, formal soils resource investigations have been conducted on the New <br />Horizon North Mine permit area. The extent of these investigations is shown on Map 2.04.9, <br />New Horizon North Mine - Soils Resource Map. A discussion of each of these surveys follows. <br />1979 SURVEY <br />Western Soils Resource Management, Inc. performed the first important investigation of the <br />NH1 mine area in 1979. This formal survey was completed on what is now called the Rice Tract <br />and is shown as the area within the current NH Mine Permit area shown on Map 2.04.9-1, New <br />Horizon North Mine - NRCS Soils Map. As shown on this map, major portions of this survey <br />area were performed on areas that were subsequently mined and have been reclaimed. This soils <br />survey covered an area of approximately 116 acres that now correspond to the southern one third <br />of the New Horizon North Mine permit area. <br />As summarized on this report, this survey reported that the SCS (now NRCS) had mapped, <br />sometime prior to the 1979 field survey, two different soils mapping units within this area, <br />mapping unit 5810, Shavano sandy clay loam and soils mapping unit 9904, Persayo sandy clay <br />loam. This evaluation resulted in the formal sampling of six undisturbed soils locations and six <br />topsoil stockpiles. Formal soils profile descriptions, using SCS form 232G were recorded on <br />Section 2.04.9 Page 1 Sept. 2015 (TR -11) <br />