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The Section 24 area is amid old pre-law workings. One minor gully exists just up from the "duck <br />pond" location. Otherwise, vegetation has taken hold and is stabilizing the reclaimed area. <br />Off-Site Impacts <br />The watershed for the East Pit is approximately 170 acres; the West Pit is approximately 450 <br />acres. These two watersheds come together right at the edge of the disturbed area, so the <br />downstream undisturbed channel drains approximately 620 acres. The runoff from the mine <br />travels one mile before it reaches Newlin Creek. The Southfield Mine permit identifies Newlin <br />Creek as an ephemeral stream because the City of Florence removes all of the water from above <br />[he mine. Newlin Creek travels five miles before itjoins Hardscrabble Creek. Hardscrabble <br />Creek travels five miles before itjoins the Arkansas River. <br />We walked the areas downstream from all of the locations where erosion is occurring looking for <br />signs of off-site impacts. My expectations were to find large sediment deltas and choked out <br />vegetation, including trees, because of the amount of material that has moved off of the site. I <br />did not observe any of these things. I saw one location that looked like a small sediment delta, <br />whether from the mine or not I could not say, but even this was well vegetated with cattails and <br />other vegetative species. <br />We decided to identify this mine as having minor off-site impacts to land resources, though this <br />designation is because of the amount of material that has left the disturbed area, not because of <br />direct impacts observed downstream. <br />