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