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Surface facilities are located in the Elk Creek, Bear Creek, Hubbard Creek and Sanborn Creek drainages on the north side of the North Fork fSee Figure 11, Mining areas include workings under the Hubbard, Bear Creek and Coal Gulch drainages. The surface lands within the permit area include lands owned by Somerset Mining Company and Federal Lands !USES and BLM1. The coal reserve owners include Somerset Mining Company, private lands leased to Somerset Mining Company and Federal lands. Hubbard Creek is a perennial tributary of the North Fork and provides both domestic and agricultural supplies of water. Bear Creek, Elk Creek, and Sanborn Creek are intermittent streams. foal Gulch is an ephemeral stream. The North Fork is a highly developed water supply which provides agricultural water to the fruit growing region of the North Fork Valley. The North Fork enters the main stem of the Gunnison River approximately 30 miles southwest of the Somerset Mine. The drainage basin of the North Fork is mountainous, bounded to the west by the Raggeds, the Ruby Range; to the east by the Huntsman Ridge, to the South by the West Elk Mountains, and to the North by Grand Mesa. Elevations in the basin range from 13.058 feet atop Mt. Owen in the Ruby Range to 5,100 feet at the confluence of the North Fork with the Gunnison River. The town of Somerset, Colorado, immediately adjacent to the Somerset mine site, is at an elevation of 6,045 feet. Somerset Mining Company has identified only one spring in the permit and adjacent areas. This spring is located on Elk Creek. A search of the State Engineer's records was conducted to find any additional adjudicated springs. No springs were found in the permit or adjacent areas. The Elk spring has a flow rate of less than one gallon per minute. The topography of the region is characterized by steep canyons cut by the North Fork and its tributaries, with several remnant alluvial terraces above the valley of the North Fork. Proceeding downstream below Somerset, Colorado, the canyon widens. At Paonia, Colorado the canyon has given way to a broad alluvial plain with interspersed remnant alluvial terraces. The coal to be mined is located in the Somerset Coal Field. The strata exposed in the Somerset Coal Field consist of the Mancos Shale and the coal-bearing Mesaverde Formation of Upper Cretaceous Age; and the Ohio Creek Conglomerate, the Wasatch Formation and the Ouartz monzonite porphyry of Early Tertiary Age (See Figure 21. Coal is mined from the Mesaverde Formation, a 2,500 foot thick sequence of sedimentary strata overlain by the Ohio Creek Conglomerate and underlain by the Mancos Shale. The strata in the Somerset Permit area dip 3-5 degrees north-northeast. The Mesaverde Formation contains two coal bearing members. The Somerset Mine mined coal from the "B-2" seam of the lower coal bearing (Bowie! member of the Mesaverde Formation. The Sanborn Creek addition to the mine will extract coal from the "B" and "C" seams of this member. The Lower Coal member ranges from 260-350 feet thick in the Somerset Coal Field and bears three minable coal seams. This member consists of interbedded and lenticular sandstones, siltstones and coals, and is overlain by a massive sandstone 25 to 225 feet thick which lies directly on the "C" seam and marks the bottom of the upper coal member. -4-