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24HG Sample Hole(s) Project Play <br />Minor Revision 321 Revision <br />Pale 3 of 12 <br />I. GEOLOGY <br />The proposed Project would include drilling along the southeastern edge of the Piceurce <br />Basin within the Somerset Coal Field, occumng on the Somerset U.S.G.S. 7 1/2-minute <br />quadrangle map. <br />Initial geological work, in this azea was, completed by W. T. Lee (1912), who reported <br />his findings in, "Coal Fields of Grand Mesa and the West Elk Mountains, Colorado" <br />(USGS Bulletin 510). Later in 1948, Wazd H. Johnson published a USGS map of the <br />Paonia Coal Field incorporating drill hole data generated through a USGS and U.S. <br />$ureau of Mines drilling program. The following year Johnson further described the <br />geology of the Mimiesota Creek area in USBM Technical Paper 721. More recently, in <br />1989, C. R. Dunrud compiled a coal resources map of the region (USGS Map C-115). In <br />1998 the Colorado Geological Survey published, "Availability of Coal Resources in <br />Colorado: Somerset Quadrangle, West-Central Colorado (CGS Resource Series 36)". <br />The general stratigraphy of the area consists of members of the Mesa Verde Formation of <br />the Upper Cretaceous System underlying the Wasatch Formation of Tertiary Age. The <br />$arren Member of the Mesa Verde formation crops out lowest in the area with the <br />overlying Ohio Creek member exposed along many of the steeper slopes. Above the <br />Mesa Verde, rocks of the Wasatch Formation are exposed. The Upper and Lower Coal <br />• Members of the Mesa Verde Formation are the major coal-bearing units in the azea. The <br />A (King), B (Somerset), and C (Beaz) coal beds of the Lower Coal Member and the D <br />(Oliver), E (Hawks Nest), and the F-Seam coal beds of the Upper Coal Member have all <br />been mined within the North Fork Valley. <br />General dip in area of the methane drainage project drilling is 3 to 4 degrees to the <br />northeast. Stratigraphic displacements and faults aze known to occur in West Elk Mine. <br />Known geologic data does not indicate that these faults are locatable on the surface. <br />WATER RESOURCES <br />The town of Paonia is situated about 10 miles west of the area and receives an average of <br />approximately 15 inches of precipitation annually. Given drat precipitation increases as <br />elevation increases, the annual precipitation at the proposed well sites would be expected <br />to be somewhat higher than that received at Paonia. An estimated 75% of the annual <br />precipitation occurs during late winter and early spring, mostly as snowfall. June, July, <br />and August are ofren the driest months. <br />Drainage from the well pad for the proposed project primarily enters an unnamed <br />tributary of Deep Creek that is tributary to Raven Creek and is tributary to the North Fork <br />of the Gunnison River. No riparian, wetland or stream habitat wilt be affected by drilling <br />activities. <br />r 1 <br />LJ <br />