Laserfiche WebLink
(1) <br />Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Operations on Areas, or Adjacent to <br />Areas, Including Alluvial Valley Floors. <br />The DRMS' definition of an alluvial valley floor is: "unconsolidated stream - <br />laid deposits holding streams with water availability sufficient for <br />subirrigation or flood irrigation agricultural activities but does not include <br />upland areas which are generally overlain by a thin veneer of colluvial <br />deposits composed chiefly of debris from sheet erosion, deposits formed <br />by unconcentrated runoff or slope wash, together with talus, other mass <br />movement accumulations, and windblown deposits". <br />Prior interpretations of the presence of an alluvial valley floor south of the <br />mine office area are erroneous for the reasons outlined below. <br />East Salt Creek is an intermittent stream in a valley 800 to 1,000 feet <br />wide. The soils are torrifiuvents and the vegetation is Greasewood <br />Shrubland. The land use of the area is rangeland. This undeveloped <br />rangeland has a low productivity (approximately 0.5 AUM) and is not <br />significant to farming. This fact is substantiated by a review of the map <br />"Important Farmlands of Garfield County, Colorado". (USDA, SCS, and <br />CSU Experimental Station, 1979) which illustrates that the site has no <br />prime, unique, or important farmlands. <br />The mine is located at an elevation of 5,605 feet in a side valley with <br />production coming from the Cameo Coal Seam. Drilling results downdip <br />(north east) of the mine indicate that the coal seam is dry and that there is <br />a water bearing sandstone 210' below the Cameo Seam in the area of the <br />portals. In the area northeast of the portals the mine has encountered <br />water. Since the drillhole downdip of the mine indicates that the seam is <br />dry, it is assumed that the mine is currently in an area of a perched aquifer <br />that may or may not have communication with the groundwater in the <br />alluvial valley floor. Any excess water encountered in the mine is pumped <br />from the mine where it enters the surface and groundwater system again. <br />An Alluvial Valley Floor (AVF) report prepared by ERO Resources <br />Corporation dated December 17, 2009 is found in Volume 1 Appendix W. <br />PR -02 2.06-1 10/12 <br />