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monitoring of any kind was required, and there have been no problems since the pits have been operating 8) The Western Gravel North R-34 Pit is located on the lower terrace approximately %z mile northeast of Phase 1 of the Haldorson Pit. This pit was excavated to a depth of approximately 20 feet. No shale was encountered and the steady ground water level is approximately 6 to 7 feet from the surface with little fluctuation from imgation season to dry season. This is typical of a lower terrace neaz the floodplain of a sizeable river on the west slope of Colorado. 9) Since the long term Haldorson operation contemplates mining a portion of the terrace to slopes of 3H:1 V, the operation will then leave a depression in the landscape that can be irrigated as before, with the exception of the sideslopes themselves. An evaluation of the potential impacts of this change to the landscape is in order. In short, the current regime is that during irrigation, the CJ and CJN laterals provide irrigation water to the azeas west and south of the site. No imgation occurs on the Spring Creek Mesa east of the site. Much of the water is consumed by the plants or released in evapotranspiration. Aportion of this imgation water infiltrates into the gravels which, then migrates downwazd toward the Mancos Shale and towazd the lower terrace. The water moves within 7 feet of the surface of the lower terrace toward the river. Annual precipitation of 10-14 inches makes the terrace very dry and areas that do not get irrigation are usually fairly barren with only drought tolerant grasses and shrubs able to survive. The permit area itself has historically been irrigated. The azeas west and south of the permit area cannot be affected by the operation since the goundwater direction is toward the pit from these azeas. No wells exist in these azeas and imgation will continue as it has for decades. The water will continue to migrate as it always has, below the mining operation to the northeast. The removal of imgation from each mining phase as it is mined could lessen the amount of infiltration into the ground, but this amount is relatively small as compared to the whole Mesa. It is also temporary since irrigation will be re-installed in each phase after Honing. Denying this request based on this pretext is tantamount to saying that the landowner must forever imgate all his land since the infiltrated water is vital to other people downstream. Another permanent effect of the plan is that the permanent depression will affect surface water runoff from the site. In other words, there will be no surface water nmo$ The surface of Spring Creek Mesa is so flat and the rainfall so low that ahnost all runoff either evaporates, is taken up by the plants or infiltrates into the gravels- For the post-mine depression, this will not change. It could only affect the water regime if huge amounts of water fell as precipitation and this water was needed as surface water dowH~ream. This is not the case. There is also an added benefit to the depression. For very lazge runoff 12