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-23- <br />The general area of the Twin Pines No. 2 Mine has been considered to be the <br />Chandler Synclinal Basin, which coincides with the Canon City Co a] Field. The <br />surface water and ground water general areas for this CHIS coincide because of <br />the geologic structural basin. Figure 1 illustrates the locations of the <br />mines within the general area of the Canon City Coal Field. All of the mining <br />operations considered in this assessment are located near the axis of the <br />Chandler Syncline and are mining coal from the middle portion of the <br />Cretaceous Uermejo Formation. Eleven mineable coal seams occur in this <br />formation and have thicknesses ranging from 1 to 16 feet. It is difficult to <br />correlate the strata between mines because each mine uses different <br />terminology for the individual coal seams. Figure 4 gives a general <br />correlation of the relationship of the seams being mined. In view of the <br />descriptive correlation inconsistencies, terminology used by the individual <br />mines will be used in this discussion. <br />These anticipated and existing permitted operations, include: the Twin Pines <br />No. 2 G.E.C. Strip, Newlin Creek, and Dorchester No. 1 Mines. <br />The proposed Twin Pines underground mine is in the west central portion of the <br />Canon City Coal Field and proposes to mine the Brookside coal seam. <br />The Newlin Creek underground mine is permitted to mine the uppermost seam, the <br />Rex Carbon, and the second highest economic seam, the Shamrock. Both seams <br />are shallow and the workings are currently above the piezometric surface, as <br />is.shown on Map 2.04.78 of the Newlin Creek application. <br />The G.E.C. surface mine will be removing five seams. The maximum depth of <br />extraction will be 100 feet and the pit will, therefore, be above the <br />piezometric surface. No inflows from bedrock strata to the pit have been <br />observed by Division personnel during monthly inspections for the past three <br />years. As stipulated in the G.E.C. permit, additional monitoring is underway <br />to verify the mine's impact to the hydrologic balance. <br />The Dorchester tJo. 1 underground mine lies on the southern terminus of the <br />Chandler Syncline, and is currently mining the Red Arrow and the Dirty Jack <br />O'Lantern Seams of the Vermejo Formation. These seams are stratigraphically <br />the lowest seams proposed to be mined in the general area. <br />A. Impacts on Ground lJater <br />The three underground mines and one surface mine anticipated within the Canon <br />City Coal Field may impact ground water quantity by one or more of the <br />following: 1) Dewatering of the coal, roof and floor with the advance of <br />mining; 2) Subsidence-induced flows into the mines; and 3) Degradation of <br />water recharging ground water aquifers. <br />