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3 <br />proposed to be 80 feet X 150 feet on 300 feet centers. There will <br />also be access roads, utilities, and an extensive elevated pipeline <br />network. Surface clearing, excavation, or occupation within any given <br />mine panel will involve nearly 70 percent of the land surface. <br />Permanent processing and administrative facilities will be housed on a <br />6.3 acre site. A 13 acre lined evaporation pond used to collect storm <br />water drainage and waste products from boilers may be located adjacent <br />to this facility site and its consideration is included in this <br />biological opinion. <br />The pipeline between the Piceance mine site and the Parachute facility <br />would run 44 miles. Approximately 33 miles of its length parallels <br />existing pipeline corridors. Mined product would be transported to <br />the Parachute processing facility as a slurry and the recycled water <br />returned to the Piceance mine site through a pair of parallel <br />pipelines. <br />American Soda's reoccupation of Unocal's Shale Oil Upgrade Facility <br />will require a 56 acre expansion of the existing 304 acre site. Two <br />lined and netted evaporation ponds including a 15 acre evaporation <br />pond and an additional 21 acre purge pond are proposed to be built at <br />the Parachute site. <br />American Soda proposes to divert water from two sources both of which <br />• have been purchased wholly or in part from Unocal. The primary source <br />would be an alluvial well field located at the forks of East and West <br />Parachute Creek. The secondary source would be from the pumping <br />pipeline that takes water out of the Colorado River approximately <br />1 mile upstream of the town of Parachute. The Colorado River intake <br />consists of two 46 inch diameter pipes emerging vertically from the <br />bottom center of the river with a concrete crib 44 feet long by <br />16 feet wide around the pipes. The long axis of the crib parallels <br />the river's flow. Triangular flow deflectors form the upstream and <br />downstream ends of the crib with trash racks (steel screens with <br />6 inch horizontal by 2 inch vertical openings) enclosing the open <br />sides. Water will be gravity fed from the river to an onshore sump, <br />then pumped up to a 5.5 acre settling basin about 20 feet above the <br />river's bank. Another set of pumps would deliver water from the <br />settling basin to the Parachute plant site through an existing buried <br />pipeline. <br />Both of the water sources were put to beneficial industrial use <br />through a 1975 water decree (W-2206) prior to January 22, 1988, the <br />date the Recovery Implementation Program for the Endangered Fishes in <br />the Upper Colorado River Basin was signed and the date that delineates <br />whether water usage is considered new or historic. The water has been <br />used for irrigation or augmentation when it has not been used for <br />industrial purposes, therefore, the Service considers it a historic <br />depletion. Unocal's 1975 water right decree allowed for use up to <br />2,547 acre-feet from its well field and pumping pipeline. American <br />---- - --- <br />