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,, <br />• 2.04.3 General Requirements: Site Description and Land Use Information <br />The location of the existing land uses within the permit area and <br />adjacent areas for Sunbelt can be found on the Pre-Mining and <br />Post-Mining Land Use Map (Map 7). Although the area along Hay Gulch <br />near Hesperus, Colorado has been used as the surface facility for <br />underground mines the present basic land use within the entire area is <br />rangeland or cropland. Some amount of land within the permit area for <br />the Peacock Coal Mine Portals and land adjacent to the permit area in <br />Hay Gulch is used as cropland. <br />The land use designations in the permit area and adjacent areas are <br />confirmed by the La Plata Land Use Map which was prepared by the Soil <br />Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. <br />As stated above, another use is found on areas within the proposed <br />permit boundary, yet it has not been included in land use categories as <br />_• defined under existing Colorado Regulations for coal mining. This land <br />use is "mined-land" and is one of the current land uses within the <br />permit boundary and adjacent areas. This land use results from the fact <br />that the permit area covers both undisturbed land and lands which have <br />been or are presently being subject to underground coal mining <br />operations and the disturbance associated with surface facilities for <br />those operations. In as much as possible, Sunbelt will treat these <br />lands within the meaning of undisturbed lands and therefore will attempt <br />to analyze the pre-mining land use accordingly. A complete history of <br />the Peacock underground mining operations is found under Part 2.04.4, <br />Cultural and Historical Resource Information. <br />The areas designated as rangeland show no evidence that might indicate <br />the land use has changed within the proceeding five years. Most of the <br />area outside of Hay Gulch has been allowed to remain in its natural <br />state never having been developed for any other use other than that <br />which might be necessary to facilitate underground mining. <br />2.04-2 <br />