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The Minnesota Creek basin is a significant drainage system occurring south of the 5-year permit area, but within the life-of-mine coal lease boundary. Minnesota Creek and its tributaries drain the southern portion of the coal lease area. These tributaries include Horse Creek, South Prong, Lick Creek, Dry Creek, and East Fork. Lick Creek and Dry Fork are the only tributaries of Minnesota Creek which are proposed to be undermined. The operator has proposed a current plan of limited extraction in these areas and has developed a detailed mitigation plan to monitor subsidence and to compensate for any loss, if any, in vested downstream water rights. Minnesota Creek enters the North Fork of the Gunnison near Paonia. The Hawk's Nest life-of-mine area is drained by nine ephemeral streams. Two of the gulches have had two water samples collected during 1980, once when they were flowing during snowmelt and once during a thunderstorm event. The water is alkaline with an average total dissolved solids concentration of 121 mg/1. Total suspended solids concentrations are low. There are a total of eleven springs and seeps within or adjacent to the Hawk's Nest Mines, three are perennial. The maximum total flow from all springs during the summer of 1982 was 16.085 gpm. Maximum total flow increased dramatically from 16.3 gpm in 1984 to 39.4 gpm during the summer of 1985. The Somerset Mine has mine workings beneath Hubbard, Elk, and Bear Creeks. These streams are perennial, ephemeral and intermittent respectively, and drain directly to the North Fork. Bear Creek is perennial below the Somerset Mine's discharge point, where the stream flow is sustained by the mine discharge. Both the Blue Ribbon and the Somerset mines had surface facilities and underground workings within the Hubbard Creek Drainage Basin prior to June 1, 1986. Surface facilities at each mine site are currently being removed and reclamation activities will follow. During 1980, Hubbard Creek flows ranged from 3 cfs to 130 cfs with an average flow of 31 cfs. The estimated annual yield for Hubbard Creek was 24,700 acre-feet/year, or 8% of the total flow of the North Fork for the year 1980, measured at Somerset, Colorado. Mean flow for Hubbard Creek from March 20, 1980 to March 14, 1986 was approximately 30.48 cfs and ranged from 1.33 cfs to 324.44 cfs. The major chemistry of the water in the mining area is dominated by sodium and bicarbonate. Calcium, magnesium, and sulfate appear less frequently. Water quality data for Hubbard Creek are presented in Table 5. In a preliminary spring survey conducted at the Blue Ribbon Mine site, only one ephemeral spring was noted and mapped. This spring is located below the Blue Ribbon Mine bench. A survey of water rights records conducted by the State Water Resources Division for the Somerset Mine revealed that there are no adjudicated springs tributary to Hubbard Creek on or adjacent to the permit areas of the Blue Ribbon and Somerset mines. 39