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8 <br />thought to roost in upland Douglas-fir stands above the Roan <br />Cliffs in the Naval Oil Shale Reserve's East Fork of'. Parachute <br />Creek (GSRA O&G EIS draft). Although the Parachute plant site and <br />southern end of the transport pipeline are associated with year- <br />round bald eagle activity centers, the plant site and its <br />ancillary facilities (e.g., railroad spur) would be confined to <br />previously disturbed sites in close association with the town of <br />Parachute and nearby developments along the I-70 corridor, and it <br />is unlikely that their construction or operation would have any <br />disruptive influence on breeding or wintering bald eagle. <br />Potential effects of evanoration Donds on eagle/falcon <br />As noted in the draft EIS, outside disruption of breeding or <br />winter roost activities, the remaining issue associated with <br />these birds is their potential contact with hypersa.line waters in <br />the various ponds associated with the plant sites. <br />BLM felt that, as proposed, evaporation ponds at.tY~e Piceance and <br />Parachute sites would regularly attract numbers of migrant <br />waterbirds sufficient to sustain opportunistic foraging use by <br />migrant peregrine and wintering/nesting bald eagle (see pp 4-51 <br />of draft EIS). Particularly at the Parachute site, we thought it <br />likely that contact with the 33-acre MVR purge pond waters (i.e., <br />tds concentrations of 200,000-300,000 ppm, pH 11) could have <br />serious consequences on the insulative properties of feathers and <br />constitute a threat to individual birds via chilling. Considering <br />specific hunting styles, this concern extended principally, if <br />not exclusively, to bald eagle. <br />American Soda has committed to the installation of bird exclusion <br />netting (maximum 2" mesh size) over any process ponds prior to <br />their being used for process fluid storage (see attached Wildlife <br />Mitigation Plan-Migratory Birds). Those ponds designed to store <br />raw water and stormwater that would not constitute a threat to <br />migratory birds or special status species would not: be 'netted. <br />This commitment has effectively eliminated potentiz~l effects <br />associated with direct contact of hypersaline watex-s in the <br />evaporation ponds and/or the attraction generated Y~y prey dying <br />or debilitated via contact with these waters. <br />Colorado River fishes (Colorado squawfish, humpback chub, bonytail chub, razorback <br />sucker) <br />The mining operation as proposed would have virtually no direct <br />involvement with the waters or flow regimen in Pice:ance Creek or <br />Parachute Creek as flow contributors to occupied native fish <br />habitats in the Colorado, Green and White Rivers. Offsite <br />transport of waters or sediments from any source associated with <br />mining would be minimized through reclamation and :stabilization <br />practices and contingency plans as required by BLM and Colorado • <br />