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There is little development of the ground water resource in the local area. The few wells that <br />have been completed in the Williams Fork interbedded sandstones yield less than five gallons per <br />minute and their uses aze limited to domestic and/or livestock use. Neazby residents haul <br />drinking water supplies from Craig and Meeker. <br />Saturation of the Williams Fork sandstones is weak to nonexistent, with the flow controlled by <br />the geologic structure of the Collum Syncline in a downdip direction. Ground water direction <br />follows the geologic structural trend and flows to the northeast. Following the downdip <br />direction, where the ground water flow meets the land surface, infrequent discharges from the <br />Williams Fork aze seen as seeps and springs on the valley walls of Goodspring and Taylor <br />Creeks, both intermittent streams. Further analysis of the Goodspring and Taylor Creek basins <br />show the rechazge rate to be 0.2 to 0.35 inches per year from the Williams Fork surface outcrop <br />area. Annual precipitation in the area averages 18 inches. <br />The Iles Formation, of varying thickness, is located beneath the Williams Fork Formation (and <br />the coals to be mined). A regional aquifer reaching thickness of up to 75 feet, the Trout Creek <br />Sandstone, is located within the Iles Formation. The Trout Creek sandstone is fine, well sorted, <br />calcareous, and is a continuous unit that can be correlated over a large azea. It is mainly from <br />this sandstone member that the two creeks on the permit azea, Goodspring and Taylor, receive <br />their flow. The Trout Creek sandstone is believed to contain water due to a saturation zone found <br />beneath Goodspring Creek. The recharge azeas for the sandstone aze south of the permit area in <br />the higher elevations or where the Trout Creek sandstone is exposed at the ground level and <br />subsequently has been eroded above the Goodspring Creek elevation. <br />Hydraulic conductivities of the sandstones below the coal seams to be mined aze variable but <br />low, with average transmissivity of 40 gallons per day per foot. Little water is either recharged, <br />transmitted or discharged from the permit azea. Drawdown analysis of two wells, Taylor No. 1 <br />and No. 3, both drilled into the Trout Creek Sandstone, showed an average transmissivity of 40 <br />and 260 gallons per day per foot and hydraulic conductivity of 3.4 and 0.13 gallons per squaze <br />42 Revised October 30, 1997 <br />