2019-11-27_PERMIT FILE - M2019058 (20)

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Appendix-4 Keenesburg Project RETTEW Project No.114782000 Colorado Sand Company LLC April 26,2019 1.0 INTRODUCTION Colorado Sand Company LLC (CSC), through Schedio Group LLC, retained RETTEW to provide baseline environmental data for CSC's proposed Keenesburg Project (Project), located in Sections 1 and 12, Township 2 North, Range 64 West, and Sections 5, 6, and 7, Township 2 North, Range 63 West, 6th Principal Meridian in Weld County, Colorado. The proposed Project is approximately 4.5 miles northeast of Keenesburg, Colorado in south-central Weld County, and appears on the Tampa and Klug Ranch, Colorado United States Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5-minute topographic quadrangles (Appendix A, Figure 1). The area of interest (A01) includes approximately 3,200 acres within Guttersen Ranches, LLC property that is predominately utilized as grazing land and for oil and gas development (Appendix A, Figure 2). RETTEW conducted an environmental review that included a desktop assessment and field investigation to identify biological resources within the project area, evaluate potential effects of the Project on these resources, and determine what additional information may be required to determine potential effects. The review included a: 1. Water Assessment 2. Wildlife Assessment 3. Soils Assessment 4. Vegetation Assessment 5. Climate Information. The following sections provide information for CSC's Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS) Regular Operation Reclamation Permit Application for the sand mining project. 2.0 WATER ASSESSMENT 2.1 Surface Water Most of the project area consists of arid upland habitat devoid of any surface water. However, one low- gradient drainage runs along the east edge of Sections 1 and 12, T2N-R64W. This mapped drainage is identified as Ennis Draw on the USGS topographic quadrangle presented in Appendix A, Figure 1, and is depicted with a dashed blue line signifying an intermittent/ephemeral stream. It is also identified on the aerial basemap provided in Appendix A, Figure 2. Areas of ponded water, hydrophytic vegetation, salt covered and/or sparsely vegetated depressions,and saturated soils were observed within portions of this drainage during the field investigation. Photographs of these features are provided in Appendix B. Although Ennis Draw is depicted as a continuous dashed line on the USGS topographic map through the entire project area, field crews did not observe evidence of a stream channel or a defined bed and bank through the entire drainage. Some portions were completely vegetated. It appears that ponded surface water only remains in portions of the drainage year-round, and in other portions only seasonally. No flowing water was observed anywhere in Ennis Draw. Photographs of the drainage are provided in Appendix B and identified on the aerial basemap provided in Appendix A, Figure 2. National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) mapped wetlands are located within and adjacent to Ennis Draw (Appendix A, Figure 2) in the project area. NWI maps are derived from aerial photo interpretation, are designed for general planning purposes only, and typically do not show all the wetland or watercourse resources within any given area. Field crews investigated some of these areas to confirm the presence of wetlands. Wetland presence/absence procedures followed the protocol described in the 2012 Regional 1