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<br />-4- <br />An application for a permit revision to add Federal Coal Leases C-8424, C-8425 <br />and C-0126669 to the permit was received by the Division on October 24, 1985. <br />The application was found complete on October 31, 1985. A preliminary <br />adequacy review of the application was forwarded to Western Fuels on <br />December 26, 1985. The permittee responded to the Division's review comments <br />in January 1986. All Division concerns regarding the adequacy of the permit <br />revision application were subsequently resolved and the Division issued a <br />proposed decision to approve the permit revision request on <br />February 28, 1986. <br />II. Description of the Environment <br />The elevation of the mine site ranges between 5,300 and 5,900 feet. Land uses <br />within the permit and adjacent areas are winter range for sheep and wildlife <br />habitat. Gently rolling to moderately sloping land forms cover a majority of <br />the mine permit area. Slopes range in steepness from 0 to 6 percent in the <br />valleys and relatively level uplands to 50 percent or more along the <br />sideslopes of major drainages. <br />The mine is located in the White River Basin, the eastern part of the larger <br />Uinta Basin which extends from northwest Colorado west into eastern Utah. The <br />mine lies within the interbedded sandstone and siltstone strata of the Upper <br />Williams Fork Formation: Mesaverde Group. The Mesaverde Group has been <br />divided into two sections: the Lower Iles Formation and the Upper Williams <br />Fork Formation, which are separated by the Trout Creek Sandstone. The <br />Williams Fork Formation is further divided into Upper and Lower members. The <br />Lower Williams Fork Member contains coal seams A through H, of which the D and <br />B seams are or will be recovered by the underground operation. <br />The dip of the Mesaverde Group within the permit area is controlled by the <br />asymmetric Red Wash Syncline, which strikes northwest southeast through the <br />refuse disposal site. Dips vary from 7° in the southern part of the permit <br />area, to horizontal at the synclinal axis, to as much as 70°on the north flank <br />of the syncline. The coal and sandstone beds outcrop along this steep <br />northern flank. Structure and local topography are the main factors which <br />control ground water movement in the area. <br />The Williams Fork Formation is divided into three hydrologic units: the Lower <br />Sandstone Facies, which underlies the "A" coal seam and is generally <br />equivalent to the Trout Creek Sandstone and the upper portion of the Iles <br />Formation; the siltstone and Coal Facies, which consists of the interbedded <br />coal, siltstone, and shale strata of the Lower Williams Fork Formation; and <br />the Upper Sandstone Facies of the Upper Williams Fork Formation. <br />A forth hydrologic unit is the alluvium of the White River and its <br />tributaries. The maximum thickness of the White River Alluvium near the <br />permit area was found to be 37 feet. <br />No major usage of ground water has been defined by the permittee. Due to the <br />generally low yields of aquifers in the region and poor water quality, it <br />would not be expected that ground water usage would be high. Of the water <br />rights that do exist within 70 square miles encompassing the permit area, all <br />are surface water rights. The water-bearing properties of the major <br />stratigraphic units in the_mine plan area are largely dependent on secondary <br />