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The Red Wash Syncline and major fracture zones located along Red Wash, Scullion Gulch, <br /> and the White River control movement of the Mesaverde groundwater. Groundwater in the <br /> northwest part of the permit area moves down dip to the Red Wash Syncline. Within the <br /> central and southern portion of the permit area, groundwater flows south to the White River. <br /> Surface water drainage patterns in the area are incised and dendritic. Scullion Gulch and Red <br /> Wash flow primarily in response to direct precipitation. The White River is a perennial stream <br /> receiving discharge from the permit and adjacent areas. The majority of flows in the White <br /> River occur between May and July in response to snowmelt. <br /> Soils in the area include the Cushman, Forelle, Pinelli, Potts, Satanka and Worfka series, <br /> which are developed on ridge tops, ridge sideslopes, and in valley fans. Underdeveloped soils <br /> such as Colorado, Haverson alkali phase, Kinnear, Moyerson, Redcreek, Rentsac, and Turley <br /> variant occur on low floodplains, extreme ridge tops, and upper ridge sideslopes. <br /> Eight plant communities have been identified in the permit area to be affected by surface <br /> operations and facilities. Vegetation communities consist of juniper woodland, juniper <br /> woodland-big sagebrush, big sagebrush, big sagebrush-wheatgrass, western wheatgrass, <br /> Colorado wildrye, cheatgrass-annual forb, and big sagebrush-greasewood. These communities <br /> comprise a mosaic controlled by soil type, topography, and past and present land uses. <br /> Historic grazing practices may have contributed to the extent of the cheatgrass-annual forb <br /> vegetation type throughout the permit area. The permit area is currently used as winter/spring <br /> range for domestic sheep. <br /> Wildlife species found within the permit area include mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), <br /> pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana), and sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). <br /> Numerous raptor species have been identified in the area. Species include the ferruginous <br /> hawk (Buteo regalis), turkey vulture (Cathortes aura), marsh hawk (Cireus cyaneus), <br /> American kestrel (Falco sparverius), sharp-shinned hawk (Accipter shiatus), burrowing owl <br /> (Spestyto cunieulaira), red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicaensus), and golden eagle (Aquila <br /> chrysauetos). Bald eagles (Hliaeetus leucocephalus) and peregrine falcons (Falco seregrinus) <br /> are known to migrate through the area. Large white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) <br /> towns exist in the area of the refuse disposal sites. <br /> Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans <br /> The Deserado Mine is an underground operation utilizing both continuous miners and longwall <br /> mining equipment to extract the "D" (upper) and "B" (lower) coal seams. Mining operations <br /> conducted during previous permit terms have extracted the D seam. D seam mining was <br /> completed, and B seam mining commenced in 1999, and will continue during the present <br /> permit term. <br /> Raw coal is transported out of the mine by conveyor to the D/B-Portal Area wash plant where <br /> the coal is crushed and cleaned. The coal is then transported 3.1 miles to the rail loadout <br /> facility via an over-land conveyor system. The coal is conveyed to the slot storage building, <br /> which can store up to 25,000 tons of coal. From this building coal is conveyed one third of <br /> 11 <br />