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Of the four 25 foot augered holes completed by the USGS, the water <br />• level in No. 3 on Taylor Creek declined below the bottom on the <br />hole in the early fall when a tributary stopped flowing, and the <br />others showed only small water level fluctuations. The rest of the <br />holes in bedrock showed normal water level fluctuations. <br />Examination of the water level data indicate that some bedrock <br />wells in the stream valleys penetrate aquifers under pressur@. The <br />wells that had not been removed by mining and could still be <br />located were remeasured by LRCWE in 1979. The water levels in <br />these wells had not changed significantly. <br />In four of the W. R. Grace & Co. core holes, Nos. 27, 33, 35 and <br />45, water at depths of less than 100 feet was cascading from <br />perched aquifers. In Grace core holes Nos. 33 and 35 there was no <br />accumulation of water to depths of 280 feet and 500 feet <br />respectively. Similarly, in Grace No. 27 water was cascading from <br />a depth of about 80 feet, and measurements were stable only near <br />the plugback depth of 295 feet. <br />This and other well data indicate that groundwater is draining <br />from the dissected upper part of the Williams Fork Formation and <br />'' that there is not a single, continuous groundwater system on the <br />property above the elevation of Goodspring Creek. Test drilling on <br />the mine site revealed that the limited amounts of groundwater that <br />exist on the site are usually perched on the highest impermeable <br />bed. Continued operation in the active pit during the permit term <br />between 1981 and present has supported the conclusion that little <br />water exists in the sedimentary sequence and that where water is <br />encountered it is limited both vertically and laterally and under <br />perched conditions. In addition, the excavation has been dry in <br />the lower seams where the sandstones show a greater lateral <br />continuity and would be expected to contain more water in storage <br />than the upper seams. <br />r 1 <br />U <br />2.04.7-6 <br />