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Impacts to soils consists of a complete disruption of soil structure. Soils will be stockpiled and will likely lose productivity as a result of residence time in the stockpile. These impacts are not significant. Vegetation Vegetation in disturbed areas will be completely .disrupted during mining. This will result in a loss in productivity until reclamation becomes established. Topsoil stockpiles will be seeded with a temporary seed mix which includes competitive species. State Stipulation 5 requires that stockpiles that will not be redistributed for 5 or more years be seeded with the permanent seed mix (excluding shrubs) rather than the temporary mix. This should help to minimize the competition of the species in the temporary seed mix with the permanent seed mix species. The impacts from vegetation disturbance are not permanent and will be reduced as revegetated areas mature. Temporary stabilization will reduce erosion. Therefore, no significant impacts have been identified resulting from surface disturbance. Wildlife Minor impacts to wildlife will occur from the destruction of habitat during surface disturbance. This habitat will remain disturbed until reclamation is completed, thus increasing competition for existing habitat. WECC has participated in stream stocking and habitat improvement programs on the North Fork of the Gunnison River. In addition, WECC has contributed to the endangered fishes fund to protect the Humpback Chub, and Colorado Squawfish. Mining plan Special conditions 2, 3, and 4 have been retained in the mining plan approval. The FWS identified important wildlife habitat that could be affected should nay disturbance of these areas occur. No significant impacts to wildlife have been identified. Alluvial Valley Floors Within the 5-year permit area, surface coal mining operations would not interntpt discontinue, or preclude farming on an alluvial valley floor. The quality and quantity of water supplying alluvial floors will not be materially damaged. Water use by the applicant results in negligible losses to the hydrologic system. No alluvial floors in the 5-year permit area will be underrined, and no major aquifers have been identified in the coal seam or the overburden. Springs are associated with lenticular sands, local faulting and fracturing, and landslide deposits. Subsidence could cause some of these springs to dry up. These springs supply less than 50 percent of the ephemeral flow of Sylvester Gulch. In the life-of-mine area, potential impacts were identified in the Minnesota Creek basin. Mining plans and subsidence protection plan for the Minnesota Creek basin have been developed. An augmentation plan is proposed to protect downstream water users. The water earmarked for the augmentation plan will not result in significant impacts to AVF's. In addition State stipulation 1 requires an adjudicated augmentation plan to be in place prior to permitting any mining activity in the Minnesota Creek Sasin. The revised mining plan for :mining in the Minnesota Creek drainage basin, the augmentation plan, and subsidence protection plan must insure that AVF's within and downstream from the mine will not be significantly impacted. -6-