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2. RESPONSES TO PUBLIC COMMENTS Text Change Response No. 49. The text has been changed for clarification or to reflect your suggested change. Please refer to Section 3, TEXT CHANGES. Vegetation Responre No. 50. The natural vegetation communities would be lost to surface disturbance for more than just a "temporary" period of time. To achieve predisturbance species composition and condition may require numerous years. Far example, as explained in Section 4.6 of We draft, it could take up to 150 years for the pinyon juniper plant community to achieve tree cover comparable to that before disturbance. ResponreNo. Sl. As stated under the referenced section, "approximately 35 of the 45 acres within the remnant vegetation association (RVA) would be disturbed by the Proposed Action or 50,000 TPY Alternative. This represents 78 percent of the RVA and would essentially eliminate the value of this area for future studies and comparisons, This would be a significant impact to this specific population but would cot be a significant impact to the general plant association because of its common occurrence in the area." The Proposed Action is the 125,000 TPY Alternative. Waste Water Disposal Response No. 52. No change necessary. The statement "unless otherwise approved in writing by the authorized officer", allows for alterations of approved operations on tract as necessary. Response No. 53. No change. This mitigation allows the flexibility for disposal of drilling Buids by other methods if approved by the authorized officer. Evaporation may be a feasible alternative provided necessary time frames did not interfere with planned phase reclamation efforts. Response No. 54. The "General Development Compo• Hants" section in the draft EIS, as stated oo page 2-I, describes the project only as proposed by WRC in their mine plan. It does not describe the action as BLM would approve it (i.e., with BLM mitigation applied). As stated under the "Committed Mitigation" section on page 2-25 of the draft, BLM will require that evaporation pond liner integrity be maintained during periodic removal of solids. if the liner is damaged during solids removal operations, the liner shall be repaired to the satisfaction of the BLM authorized officer. For further clarity, please see Appendix C. Water Resources Response No. 55. Your comment is noted. BLM recognizes and acknowledges the information and data submitted by WRC's consultants, BLM has not attempted to bias data or concepts in this EIS process, but has tried to present the most aceurate and most accepted description of the hydrologic environment. BLM acknowledges hydraulic connections between the upper and lower aquifers; however, we do not agree with the one aquifer concept presented by WRC's consultants. That is why this EIS describes a two aquifer system in the Piceance Basin that is hydraulically connected and in communication to varying degrees, dependent upon strata and location. Response No, 56, Your concerns have been clarified in the rewrite of the Water Resources section. Please refer to the TEXT CHANGES section for pages 4-8 through 4-13 (Water Resourtxs, Environmental Consequences). Response No. 57, WRC's representatives were made aware of the potential use of saline water for an alternative to fresh water supplies. However, because of technological and economic reasons, the saline water sources are not considered a viable water supply alternative for this project at this time. Response No. 58. Yes, we agree in part with your statement. The use of groundwater for the pilot project, in and of itself, will not measurably deplete or alter the surface water system; however, the water usage from the project, when considered cumulatively, will contribute to adverse alteration of downstream endangered fish habitat as explained in Section 4.9.5 and in Appendix D of the draft EIS. Please reread these sections for clarification. Response No. 59. The 20 percent figure was derived from the assumption that there is approximately 1,000 acres of saline minerals in contact with the lower aquifer along the trunption zone of the Boies and L-SE with the dissolution surface. Under the 125,000 TPY Alternative approximately 200 additional acres would be in conaa with the saline minerals at the end of mine life. Response No. 60. Your concerns have been clarified in the rewrite of the Water Resources section. Please refer to the TEXT CHANGES section for pages 3-8 through 3-14 (Water Resources, Affected Environment). Response No, 6I. (I) This section is describing the regional groundwater characteristics and is not site-specific; therefore, describing the Mahogany Zone to the site-specific project area is cot appropriate within this section. (2) By stating that the Mahogany Zone is a semiconfining layer, there is no need to add leaky; it is implied in the statement. 2-48