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9. Site Description and Land Use Information. • Approximately 80% of the permit area is the site of a previous underground coal mining operation, which had been operated, to the belief of the applicant, intermittently in excess of 50 years. Details of the prior operator's time and method of operations are unknown to the applicant. However, it is known that the permit area is strewn with unsightly buildings, unusable mining equipment, mine excavations and dumps and concrete structures. Partly as a result of prior mine operations, and also partly the result of the thin soil and lack of precipitation; there are few trees, shrubs and grasses, which do not appear to be thriving. There is no evidence that deer, el.k or other large wildlife animals frequent or rely upon the affected area. There is also no other evidence to indicate any other use of the affected area except for occasional four-wheel drive passersby. Maps A, B and A-1 depict the affected area. By virtue of the affected area's prior mining activities and current condition, steep slopes, thin soil and lack of precipitation, the affected area has no productive capability, insofar as the applicant can ascertain, excepting for underground mining activities. S 10. Cultural and Historic Resource Information. Insofar as the applicant can ascertain, there are no cultural or historic resources within the affected area, or known archeological features, likely to be affected by coal mining activities contemplated by the applicant. 11. General Description of Hydrology and Geology. A. Hydrology. Three streams pass through the affected area, the south flowing Animas River and the tributary Lightner Creek (shown as an intermittent stream on Map A) and the La Plata River draining the western portion of the affected area. Map A also shows the location of springs, water ditches, drainage gullies and water wells. Exhibit "F" is a table showing the ownership, depth and yields of water wells from the Colorado state records. Ground waters percolating up through the exposed pit designated as the Green Pond on Map A-1 are impounded in such pit, and to the extent of overflow, are impounded in a sedimentation pond. Pdatural snow runoff and precipitation, when it occurs, causes intermittent surface flow. Ground water is principally contained in the coal bear- ing Menefee formation and underlying Point Lookout sandstone formation, which is a source of water wells to the south of . applicant's lands. - 4 - e:~- r~