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<br /> <br />Bear Creek Quarry (M-1977-344) Permit Amendment <br />Holcim US Inc, 3500 Highway 120, Florence, CO 81226 <br />Phone (719) 288-1443 www.holcim.us 63 <br />2.7 Exhibit G: Water Information (Rule 6.4.7) <br /> <br />2.7.1 Existing Conditions <br />The RCQ lies within the Great Plains physiographic region of Colorado and consists of Cretaceous <br />Seaway Sedimentary rocks (Barkmann 2021). The Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the region were <br />deposited from an inland sea that divided the North American continent into two landmasses <br />approximately 100 million years ago. The shifting coastal seashore line resulted in the varying marine <br />environment responsible for the deposition with shallow water deposition represented by the sandstone <br />units and deep water deposits represented by limestone and shales (Pinel, 1977). <br />The topography at the Site is generally flat with some local relief along surface water drainages with shale, <br />limestone, and sandstone outcrops. The overall gradient slopes downward to the northeast towards Red <br />Creek and the Arkansas River. Within the Red Creek drainage, sequences of erosion and deposition <br />resulted in multiple alluvial stream terraces covered to varying degree in vegetation. <br />Within the Red Creek drainage are seeps and springs flowing from fractures within the rock outcrop. <br />Minimal water flow was observed in alluvial sediments above the seep location indicating minor flow within <br />Red Creek independent of the identified seeps. <br />The surface water flow disappears into the creek sediments and Red Creek is dry at the boundary of the <br />Site. Drainages south and east of Red Creek show signs of intermittent to no surface water flow. Upland <br />areas on the site are grasslands with gentle slopes, few outcrops, and sparse shrubs and trees compared <br />to the Red Creek drainage. <br />Another feature on the Site is the Minnequa canal, owned by R ocky Mountain Steel Mills. The canal flows <br />across the RCQ property along the northeast corner, diverting water from the Arkansas River at Florence <br />for irrigation purposes and municipal/domestic use. The canal is fully fenced and is siphoned under Red <br />Creek, just north of the Site property boundary. <br />2.7.2 U.S. Army Corp of Engineers <br />Holcim engaged BC to begin the preliminary jurisdictional determination (PJD) for the Red Creek Quarry <br />parcel in Fall 2019. BC personnel conducted a field reconnaissance at the Site on May 28, 2019 to <br />observe and document conditions of the property, specifically related to the surface water drainages on <br />the Site. The location of the sites visited are shown in Figure 2.7.2 -1. A second field visit was conducted <br />on October 1, 2019 with Joshua Carpenter, regulatory staff with the United States Army Corps of <br />Engineers (USACE), Albuquerque District, Pueblo Regulatory office to review the site conditions and <br />discuss potential jurisdictional resources. Based on these two field visits, BC submitted a preliminary <br />jurisdictional determination (PJD) request to the USACE; on May 21, 202 the USACE issued the initial <br />PJD letter stating they concurred with the BC assessment. The USACE-approved PJD provided Holcim <br />with the information necessary to start planning for mining operations and the disturbance footprint given <br />the locations of jurisdictional resources. <br />Based on the need for better defining the limits of ephemeral tributaries to Red Creek on the site, a <br />second field reconnaissance was conducted by BC on December 3, 2020. Initially, the first limits between <br />upland non-jurisdictional drainages and ephemeral tributaries were delineated using the dirt road that runs <br />east-west across the property as the basis for the distinction between jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional <br />resources. As such, a second, initial PJD form was submitted to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) <br />on January 8, 2021 with the revised stream field review. The revised USACE PJD approval from the <br />USACE was received on November 10, 2022 (BC 2021, Appendix 4.2). A figure of the delineated stream <br />and wetland resources are provided in Appendix 4.2 (BC 2021).