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<br /> <br />and quality of the ground-water and surface-water <br />resources. Paramount in this appraisal, however, is the <br />fact that the subject lease applications would merely <br />maintain present coal production rates of ongoing mines <br />and would not increase future production. Thus, the <br />currently active pits may eventually occupy the proposed <br />lease tracts, but only their location and not their size <br />or the relative area disturbed would change. Meanwhile, <br />reclamation of previously mined areas would keep pace <br />with ongoing mining operations. The net effect, for all <br />practical purposes, would be to continue current impacts <br />over the increased life of the operation at approximately <br />the same levels as are presently occurring. No attempt <br />is made here to assess the impacts of the current scale <br />of mining on the environment inasmuch as no pre-mining <br />hydrologic data are available for the area. It is <br />emphasized, however, that current operations comply with <br />all established state and EPA standards for surface-water <br />discharge from the mined areas. and that no discharge <br />problems are expected in conjunction with mining on the <br />proposed lease tracts. <br />a. Ground Water <br />Removal of the Wadge coal bed and the overlying se- <br />quence of interbedded shale, siltstone, and sandstone <br />should have minimal impact on potential aquifers in <br />121 <br />