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-14- <br />The only mininy facility not located within the Canadian River watershed is <br />the Kerr Tipple. This tipple is located at the town of Walden and is in the <br />Illinois River watershed. Due to its limited size, limited impacts, and the <br />distance from the major mining disturbances, the Kerr Tipple will be excluded <br />from the Cumulative Hydrologic Impacts Study. <br />This assessment is divided into three major subsections: 1) Uescription of <br />the Hydrologic Environment, 2) Prooable Hydrologic Impacts of the Bourg Strip <br />Mine, and 3) Cumulative Hydrologic Impacts of (dining Assessment. <br />Uescription of the Hydrologic Environment <br />Topoyraphy <br />The North Park Coal Field is located within the North Park Basin, which is an <br />inter-mountain basin bounded by the Medicine Bow Range to the east, the Park <br />Range to the west, and the Rabbit Ears Range to the south. All of the coal <br />mines noted earlier are locateb in the gently rolling hills of the <br />interbasin. The maximum elevation in the area of the mines is 8,540 feet and <br />the elevation at U.S. Geological Survey gaging station No. 06619450 (see <br />Figure 2) is 7,930 feet. <br />Climatology <br />North Park has a cold desert climate. The average annual precipitation in the <br />vicinity of the mine is 10 inches, 61% (6.0 inches) occurring as rain during <br />the months of Iday Through September. The remaining 4 inches of precipitation <br />occurs as snowfall during the ~nontns of October throuyh April. <br />The mean temperature at Walden, Coloraao is 31.1oF and fluctuates between <br />15oF and 78oF. The average growing season is 102 days and the average <br />number of frost-free nays is 46. <br />Geology <br />The yeneral geology of the North Park region has been well-established by <br />numerous United States Geological Survey investigations, the most notable of <br />which are Beekly (1915), Hail (1965, 1968) and Kinney (1970, 1971). <br />The North Park region can be geomorphic ally classified as an intermontane <br />basin, enclosed by the Iedicine Bow Range to the east, the Park Range to the <br />west, and the Rabbit Ears kange to the south. The resultant structural basin <br />is truncated to the north by the Independence Mountain Fault. This basin <br />contains sediments ranging in age from Triassic to Quarternary. <br />In addition to the broad synclinal fold which formed the overall structural <br />basin of the North Park region, considerable local folding and faulting has <br />also occurred. These local folds and faults are probably the result of <br />compression caused by the fonnation of the larger synclinal trough. The <br />McCallum Anticline lies oetween the Michigan and Canadian Rivers, east of the <br />town of Walden (Figure 3). Structurally, the anticline is doubly plunging and <br />