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Alternative Water Supplies <br />WFC will use the following alternative water sources to mitigate any ground or surface water <br />right impacts. WFC has available 114.5 acre-feet of surface water, which is a consumptive <br />use credit associated with WFC's ownership of 21 shares of the Colorado Cooperative <br />Company (CCC). WFC has an absolute 4 acre-foot storage right for the 001 reservoir at the <br />New Horizon 1 mining area and is projected to have 18 acre-feet of pit pumpage during the non - <br />irrigation season available to them for use. WFC also has a 1.5 acre-foot ground water right <br />associated with the mined out shop well. <br />It is from these alternative sources of water that the surface water augmentation plan has been <br />developed. No ground water impacts requiring mitigation are forecast. However, should a ground <br />water supply be diminished to such an extent that it precludes its use, WFC will replace this supply <br />with surface water available to them or will replace the well. Only 62.1 acre-feet of CCC water is <br />required for the surface water augmentation plan. <br />Alluvial Valley Floors <br />Introduction <br />At the request of the DRMS, Peabody submitted, on November 17, 1980, a report entitled <br />"Reconnaissance Investigation for the Identification of Potential Alluvial Valley Floors in the <br />Vicinity of the Nucla Mine". The reconnaissance area included those portions of Tuttle and <br />Calamity Draws which are adjacent to or near the New Horizon Mine. The San Miguel River <br />was not taken into consideration. However, DRMS undertook a study in 1983 to determine if <br />the San Miguel River could be considered a potential alluvial valley floor where it runs adjacent to <br />the New Horizon Mine. The results of that study determined that there was a sufficient distance <br />separating the mine from the San Miguel River to mitigate any impacts that may occur. Refer to <br />the DRMS's Nucla Mine Proposed Decision and findings of Compliance Document (1983) for <br />the results of their study. <br />The discussion that follows is based on information contained in Section 2.04.7, field observations, <br />and interpretation of false -color infrared and color aerial photographs at scales of 1" = 500'. <br />Geomorphology <br />The areas (First and Second Park) in which the New Horizon Mine and the New Horizon 2 mining <br />area are situated were formed by a regional uplift of sedimentary rocks with the uppermost strata <br />being the Cretaceous Dakota sandstone and Burrow Canyon formations. The formations are <br />overlain by varying thicknesses of undifferentiated eolian silts and sands. These deposits have <br />July 2016 (TR -74) 2.05.6(3)-8 <br />