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<br /> <br /> 5 <br /> <br />The Loadout permit area and adjacent area lie within western Mesa County. Private lands are <br />under the jurisdictions of Mesa County and the city of Fruita. Existing land uses within the permit <br />and adjacent area consist of industrial, agricultural, rangeland, fish and wildlife and a <br />transportation corridor. <br /> <br />The Loadout adjoins the former Fruita Refinery to the east. To the south are former evaporation <br />ponds and undeveloped areas. There are private residential and rural agricultural lands to the west <br />and northwest. A main railroad corridor and highway easement are located to the north, beyond <br />which lie agricultural lands. <br /> <br />As this is a loadout facility, no coal is proposed to be mined within the permit area. The permit <br />area has not been previously mined. Coal loadout and reclamation operations will be conducted <br />at the site. The areas disturbed by the loadout facilities will be returned to industrial, fish and <br />wildlife, and combination rangeland and fish/wildlife habitat land uses. <br /> <br />Geology and Topography <br /> <br />The Loadout is located in the Canyon Lands Section of the Colorado Plateau Physiographic <br />Province. The location of the site is within the Grand Valley. The Grand Valley is an extended <br />populated valley, approximately 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, located along the Colorado River <br />primarily in Mesa County in western Colorado. The valley is surrounded by large plateau <br />formations, including the Book Cliffs along the north side and the Grand Mesa along the southeast <br />side. The Colorado National Monument is on the southwest side of the valley west of Grand <br />Junction. <br /> <br />The site and surrounding areas consist of relatively level ground with an overall slope to the <br />southwest. The ground surface elevation averages approximately 4,470 feet above mean sea level <br />at the site. The surface geology of the permit area and adjacent area is influenced by the Mancos <br />shale formation which is extensive in western Colorado. To the north, the Mancos shale is capped <br />by the Book Cliffs, which stand out in bold relief above the valley. The soils in the permit area <br />and adjacent area have developed in place from the Mancos shale. <br /> <br />Surface Water <br /> <br />The Loadout permit area is located in the Colorado River Basin. The southwest corner of the <br />permit area is about 6 feet higher in elevation than, and 800 feet to the northeast of, the 100-year <br />flood plain of the Colorado River. Map 08 shows the upstream and downstream monitoring sites <br />for the Colorado River, designated as US-CR and DS-CR respectively. <br /> <br />The baseline surface water data for the Colorado River show that a high flow rate of 15,100 cfs <br />occurred in the second quarter of 2010, while the low flow rate of 2,910 cfs occurred in the fourth <br />quarter of 2010. The flow rates during the first, third and fourth quarters of 2010 are very close <br />in magnitude, while the flow rate for the second quarter of 2010 was far higher due to the influence <br />of snowmelt. As explained in Subsection III G of Section B of these Findings, the Colorado River <br />will not be sampled during loadout operations except for the four quarters preceding bond release,