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<br /> <br /> <br /> 68 C1981-041 RN7 findings <br />or Cottonwood Creek, the proposed operations will not affect water quality. The <br />Division has estimated that stream flow depletion in the absence of flow through <br />fractures, either natural or as a result of subsidence, would be less than 0.003 cfs. <br />Such a minor loss would not be detectable. <br /> <br />The permittee has proposed a limited extraction mine plan beneath the streams, and <br />subsidence effects would not be expected in these areas. No major natural fractures <br />have been identified in the permit application. Minor fractures are undoubtedly <br />present, but may not be open to the passage of groundwater. The required surface <br />water and mine water monitoring will detect any unanticipated change in the existing <br />hydrologic system. <br /> <br />3. Surface coal mining and reclamation operations would be conducted to preserve, <br />throughout the mining and reclamation process, the essential hydrologic functions of <br />the alluvial valley floor (4.24.2(1)). <br /> <br />The essential hydrologic functions of the Rapid Creek alluvial valley floor are those <br />geologic, hydrologic, topographic, and soil characteristics that give the area the ability <br />to support flood irrigated agricultural activities. Since no mining activities would take <br />place within the AVF, the geologic, topographic, and soil characteristics of the AVF <br />would be unaffected. Rapid Creek and Cottonwood Creeks would be undermined <br />under a limited extraction plan and mining would not affect the surface water system <br />that supplies the alluvial valley floor. <br /> <br />Colorado River Alluvial Valley Floor - Findings <br /> <br />1. The proposed surface coal mining operations would not interrupt, discontinue or <br />preclude farming on an alluvial valley floor that is irrigated or naturally subirrigated. <br /> <br />The area designated as alluvial valley floor lies outside of the permit area, downstream <br />from the proposed operations. As a result, there would be no surface disturbance <br />within the AVF, and the area would not be undermined. No irrigation occurs along <br />this stretch of the river where the permit area is located except for undeveloped <br />rangelands which are not significant to farming (4.24.3(1) and 2.06.8(5)(a)(i)). <br /> <br />2. The proposed surface coal mining operations would not materially damage the <br />quantity or quality of water in surface and groundwater systems that supply those <br />alluvial valley floors or portions of alluvial valley floors (4.24.3(3) and <br />2.06.8(5)(a)(ii)). <br /> <br />Water for flood irrigated agricultural activities is obtained from two sources. The <br />upper terrace areas at the mouth of Rapid Creek are irrigated by flow from the Rapid <br />Creek system. As discussed above, mining would not affect either water quality or <br />quantity in the Rapid Creek/Cottonwood Creek stream system. <br />