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West Elk Mine 2015 Surface Water and Groundwater Quantity and Quality Data Summary 19 <br />3.2.2 Impacts to Spring and Seep Water Quantity <br />Routine (post -baseline) monitoring of spring and seep flow is conducted three times per <br />year, corresponding with rising limb, peak flow, and low flow periods. As a result, <br />spring and seep flows may be highly variable from year to year. However, subsidence <br />associated with coal mining can reduce or eliminate spring flows, or alter spring locations <br />due to stratigraphic changes. <br />The spring flow hydrographs are presented in Appendix D. In general, spring and seep <br />flows in WY 2015 were within the range of historical averages. <br />Springs G -la, G-20, G-30, and Deep Creek Spring # 2, have been continuously dry or <br />damp at the time of monitoring for multiple years including WY 2015 and may have been <br />originally impacted by mining. Spring J-7 has been dry in multiple years including <br />WY2010, 2012, and 2013 and was also dry in WY2015 and Spring J-4 became dry in <br />WY2015 (Appendix D), and both may have been impacted by mining. <br />Flows at Spring 27-1 have been decreasing steadily since WY 2008, in spite of snowpack <br />and precipitation trends, and this trend has most likely been caused by the deterioration <br />and collapse of the spring discharge pipe. <br />3.3 Groundwater <br />In WY 2015, MCC's groundwater monitoring program included 14 monitoring wells <br />throughout the permit and lease areas. This number does not include 14 wells that have <br />casings which were irreparably damaged, blocked, or have collapsed in prior years (Table <br />6). Field water quality and the depth to water are recorded three times annually, <br />corresponding to the rising limb, peak flow, and low flow sampling rounds. Routine <br />monitoring (post -baseline) includes collecting a sample for laboratory analysis one time <br />per year during the low flow monitoring round. The well water elevation and depth to <br />water data are presented in Appendix F and the groundwater quality data are presented in <br />Appendix G. <br />June 2016 HydroGeo, Inc- <br />