REV99599

• Permit No: C1984065
• IBM Index Class Name: Revision
• Doc Date: 6/13/1988
• Doc Name: APPLICATION FORM FOR A REVISION TO A COAL MINING & RECLAMATION PERMIT
• Type & Sequence: TR4
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

NCEC - Technical Revision -3- June 13 1988
4.1 SURFACE WATER
Surface water site CR-2, which is located along the Colorado River, would not
likely provide any indication of changes in the quality of Colorado River
water due to either direct mine runoff to the river or subsurface flow from
the alluvium. The average low flows in the Colorado are at least three orders
of magnitude greater than possible flows from the site. Therefore, on amass
flux basis, changes in Colorado River water quality due to mine operations
(either from instaneous events or general water quality degradation) would not
be identified by quarterly monitoring of field parameters. In addition, the
alluvial wells in the monitoring system would provide an "earlier" indication
of any general water quality degradation than would the CR-2 site, even if
detectable.
4.2 GROUND WATER
The bedrock sites SK-3H and SK-3.75 have provided important baseline data for
the area over the last several years. The original installations, because of
the small diameter, inclined, deep holes, were not expected to last more than
a year or two. Fortunately, they have outlived their life expectancy by an
additional year or two.
MLRD has concluded in their hydrologic consequences discussion that impact to
• the bedrock water-bearing zones is not likely to be either significant or
damaging. This conclusion is based on both the low permeability of the units
and the inaccessability of the units to surface users. Since the geologic
units within the hogback are dipping steeply to the south, the various
water-bearing units are beyond economic consideration within a few thousand
feet of their outcrop. Under these circumstances, the usefulness of the two
bedrock monitoring wells to provide impact information is somewhat limited.
Therefore, NCEC proposes to drop SK-3.75 and SK-3H from the monitoring system.
NCEC has committed to drilling additional bedrock monitoring wells from within
the mine, as the mine advances.
Wells OW-3L, OW-4L, OW-7, and OW-8 will be retained in the monitoring system.
In addition, since the original application, three new monitoring wells were
added to the system (OW-12, 13, and 14). These will also be retained.
5.0 SUI~PiARY
Because of both the reduction in scale of the proposed mine activity and
non-utility of specific monitoring sites, NCEC proposes to modify the existing
• New Castle Energy Corporation