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Because of the area's morphology and the experience <br />• gained from drilling it is evident that the area of the <br />proposed lease is a potential recharge area. No springs <br />issuing from the Mesaverde except possibly some temporary <br />springs issuing during the periods of snocumelt have been <br />identified in the entire area of the study. <br />The potential for precipitation and runoff infiltration <br />into the Mesaverde rocks is limited because of the steep <br />topography and numerous steeply inclined erosion gulches. <br />However, there are several areas where more permeable strata <br />underlie stream beds filled with water saturated sediments <br />and, therefore, increase the recharge potentital. <br />As a result, the Mesaverde Formation transmits little <br />water. Results from drilling indicate an occasional <br />occurrence of ground water in the more permeable sandstones <br />of the formation. As these sandstones are lenticular and <br />discontinuous the ground water is perched. This coincides <br />with the observations made from the existing mine. Although <br />local ground water inflows have been encountered they <br />usually decrease rapidly in quantity and dry out. <br />The only potentially important member of the tesaverde <br />Formation is the Rollins Sandstone Member, a 100 to 200 foot <br />thick sandstone layer at the base of the Mesaverde <br />• Formation. This member could conduct water although its <br />cliff-like exposure permits little recharge. The Rollins <br />Sandstone is several hundred feet below the D-seam and any <br />potential subsidence will have no effects on its hydrologic <br />conditions. Most of the ground water monitoring wells have <br />penetrated into the Rollins Sandstone and, therefore, it is <br />possible that water encountered in these wells may have <br />originated from this sandstone stratum. <br />Transmissivity of the Mesaverde Formation could be <br />increased if it were fractured. Results of test drilling <br />indicate, however, that fracture zones are not extensive. <br />There are no known wells in the Mesaverde Formation in <br />the Paonia study area that produce sufficient water for any <br />use. <br />Several faults within the lease area were indicated by <br />drilling and observations in the Orchard Valley Mine. <br />Although the experience in the mine does not indicate a <br />substantial water inflow connected to these faults, there is <br />a probablity that some of the faults, or at least parts of <br />them, may be highly fractured. <br />u <br />- to - <br />