2020-10-27_PERMIT FILE - C1981035 (23)

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ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Water is used at the King II Mine primarily for dust suppression, as required by MSHA and other regulations for worker safety and mine operations. Since there is no water supply at the mine, water for the King II Mine is based on water rights owned and leased by GCC. Water is diverted from the La Plata River via the Hay Gulch Ditch(priority date of 1888)and is delivered to the King 11 Mine site through ditches on the private Huntington Ranch and then the Huntington pipeline. GCC and Huntington Ranch have completed negotiations with respect to water rights conveyance and easements.The water right decree in Colorado Water Court District 7 for Case Number 07CW100 provides raw water for mine operations and for treatment to provide potable water for offices and sanitary facilities. The decree provides up to 34.07 acre-feet annually from three sources of water: Huntington irrigation dry-up, diversion from the La Plata River, and well water. In 2015, GCC filed (2015CW3029)for supplemental water supply to meet the requirements of LPC's land use code. The supplemental water supply is comprised of Huntington Class A Shares in the Hay Gulch Ditch Company through dry-up of an additional 44 acres of previously irrigated Huntington-owned lands. This supplemental water supply required a "change of use" decree from the water court to allow irrigation water to be used at the mine. As provided in the "change of use" decree, GCC releases water associated with the amount diverted to the 44 acres to mimic historic return flows. The 95%of the return flows are released on the surface and 5%are released into an infiltration gallery at the edge of the 44 acres to mimic the historic surface and subsurface return flows. Return flows are released to the stream on a weekly basis. The supplemental water and "change of use" was decreed as an absolute water right via Water Court Case 17CW3015 on January 16t", 2018. No groundwater is used at the mine. Under the Proposed Action, there would be no change to how water is obtained. Approximately 14.07 acre ft of water is used by GCC from the Huntington Ditch each year for mining dust suppression and bath house facility operational use. This is equivalent to six acres of seasonal irrigation for hay/grass. 2.2.4 Annual Production and Life of Mine The planned production rate is a maximum of about 600,000 tons per year (tpy) for the first 2 years and about 800,000 tons per year thereafter.The life of the mine would be extended by about 22 years to 2043 including mining the inferred private reserves. If the annual production rate is lower, the mine life could be extended further. As shown in Table 2-1, coal production at the King 11 Mine increased annually from its inception in 2007 until 2015. Reductions in coal production in 2015 were primarily due to depressed regional coal markets. In 2016, LPC issued GCCE a Class 11 LUP (Project#2012-0089)that included a Road Improvements Agreement (RIA), which limits the volume of coal truck traffic along CR 120 based upon various phases of road improvements that GCCE agreed to complete as part of their LUP. The LUP, RIA, and LPC Planning Department staff report are publicly available on the LPC Planning Department GCCE Project web page at: http://Ipccds.org/planning/gcc energy project. Prior to the RIA and LUP, actual annual production was driven by coal and alternative fuel markets. Coal production at the King 11 Mine is currently limited by the number of allowable loaded coal trucks on CR 120 per the LPC RIA.The RIA allows an average of 80 loaded trucks per day through road improvement Phases 1, 2, and 3; 100 trucks per day during Phase 4,and 120 trucks per day after Phase 5 improvements are completed. Based on each loaded truck carrying approximately 28.5 tons, the maximum allowed Dunn Ranch Area Coal Lease by Application COC-78825 and Mine Plan Modification EA 2-8