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water rights to Deer Trail Ditch water totalling 300 acre-feet per yeaz and <br />anticipates a maximum operational need of approximately 44 acre-feet per yeaz. <br />Forty-four acre-feet is approximately .Ol% of the mean annual flow of the North <br />Fork. <br />The applicant's discussion of probable hydrologic consequences has identified <br />no anticipated changes in surface water quality. All runoff from disturbed <br />surface azeas will drain through an approved sediment control system. No <br />material damage to the quality of surface waters supplied to the alluvial valley <br />floor is anticipated, due to sediment control at the site and the fact that the ditch <br />which supplies the AVF is located upslope of the disturbance. <br />There is a slight potential for water quality degradation to occur in the alluvial <br />aquifer immediately down gradient of the loadout pad as a result of percolation <br />of degraded water through the colluvium. This potential is considered <br />insignificant for the following reasons. First, the small amount of degraded <br />percolation water that would infiltrate would be rapidly diluted by existing <br />water in the system. The amount of percolation water would be minimized by <br />the small size of the contributing drainage azea (less than 15 acres) and the fact <br />that the compacted surface of the pad will favor runoff over infiltration. Once <br />operations aze completed, the coal stockpile and sediment pond will be <br />reclaimed and the potential for water quality degradation will cease. <br />3. Pursuant to Rules 4.24.2(1) and (2), the Division finds that surface coal mining <br />and reclamation operations would be conducted to preserve, throughout the <br />mining and reclamation process, the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial <br />valley floors not within the affected area, and would be conducted to reestablish <br />the essential hydrologic functions of the alluvial valley floor within the affected <br />area. <br />As stated previously, operations aze not expected to materially damage the <br />quantity and quality of surface and ground water that supply the alluvial valley <br />floor downstream from the permit area. Pond dischazge sampling, as specified <br />in Section V of this document, will be implemented to document the <br />assumptions of this finding. Operations, as presented in the.application, will not <br />interfere with or preclude irrigation of those portions of the AVF not within the <br />affected azea. Appropriate culverts and ditches have been provided for, where <br />necessary. <br />XVIII. Operations on Prime Farmland <br />A. Pursuant to Rule 2.07.6(2)(k), the Division has made a negative determination for the <br />presence ofprime farmland within the proposed permit area. The decision was based <br />on mapping by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service which demonstrates that no prime <br />farmland mapping units aze found within the permit area. <br />21 <br />