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Western Fuels-Colorado, LLC <br />Third Park Prospective Coal <br />Resource Area <br />ARCADIS Exploratory Cores <br />Class III Cultural Resource <br />Inventory <br />Introduction <br />Western Fuels-Colorado, LLC, (V1IFC) is planning to expand the New Horizon <br />Coal Mine in Nucla, Colorado. As part of the planning for expansion, WFC <br />proposes a program of exploratory core holes on public land in Third Park <br />administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Uncompahgre Field <br />Office. This land is located northwest of the Town of Nucla in Montrose County. <br />The exploratory coring will include 98 cores collected by atruck-mounted rig. <br />Much of the access to the core hole locations will be by maintained dirt roads. <br />Access to off-road locations will entail driving overland. These access routes <br />will not require any improvements. <br />ARCADIS conducted an intensive pedestrian survey of the core hole locations <br />and overland access routes. The survey was completed by Carl Spath, PhD <br />and Johnny Selby between November 15 and 17, 2006. <br />Affected Environment <br />The project area is in Third Park about 5 miles northwest of the Town of Nucla. <br />Third Park is an area of rolling uplands bound by deeply incised canyons on <br />the north, west, and south. These canyons are Tabeguache Creek, the San <br />Miguel River, and Coal Canyon. The Uncompahgre Plateau is about 5 miles to <br />the east, and Paradox Valley is about 6 miles to the southwest. The project <br />area is drained by small ephemeral drainages and lacks perennial surface <br />water. Elevations in the project area range from about 5,600 feet above mean <br />sea level at the edges of some of the canyons to a high point of 5,885 feet in <br />the southwestern portion of the project area. <br />Soils in the survey area are light brown fine loamy sands. There are many <br />exposures of sandstone and siltstone along drainages and in lower areas, <br />while many higher areas are mantled by moderately deep Quaternary eolian <br />sands and silts. Underlying bedrock is predominantly sandstone, shale, and <br />conglomerates of the Cretaceous-age Dakota Sandstone and Burro Canyon <br />Formation (Tweto 1979). There are also some exposures of sandstones, <br />shales, and siltstones of the Jurassic-age Entrada Sandstone, Morrison <br />Formation, and Summerville Formation. Very little lithic material suitable for <br />stone tool manufacture was observed in the project area. Several areas <br />exhibited pockets or small exposures of greenish gray siftstone, some of which <br />COW 1108- We9an Fuela JN PaM1: SUrveY Rq_It-1M~.Eac <br />