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In contacting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) three endangered fish species were noted as potentially being impacted indirectly by the operation: Federally-listed Species XIV. XV Colorado squawfish Humpback chup Bonytail chub Prichocheilus lucius Gila cvaha Gila elegans While the proposed activity is not directly located in areas currently occupied by any of the above fishes, the USFWS believes that any depletion of water from the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) may have negative impacts on these endangered fishes. Simply put, water that leaves the UCRB before reaching habitat areas for listed fishes may actually cause cumulative deterioration of downstream, occupied habitat. In this way depletions are thought to contribute to the fishes' decline. The operator submitted a report of the potential for depletions to the UCRB as part of the Orchard Valley (Bowie No. 1) West Mine permit revision request. The Division agreed with those findings. The operator predicted that 26.7 acre feet ofwater could be depleted by the operation. The Office of Surface Mining relayed this information to the USFWS. This impact is minimal but was be mitigated by the operator through financial compensation to a FWS fund set up for the endangered species. Both OSM and FWS are satisfied with this arrangement, which is in use for other Federal projects impacting the UCRB. Stipulation No. 42, attached to the 1993 permit renewal no. 2 document, required the applicant to submit water depletion information for the purpose of calculating the financial compensation amount. This stipulation was complied with through Minor Revision No. 93. In Technical Revision No. 32, a second water depletion estimate was made concerning a proposed increase in the production rate from 1 million to 5 million tons per year at the Bowie No. 1 unit train loadout. The water depletion estimate that was calculated by BRL amounted to 155.6 acre-feet. This information was forwarded to the U.S.D.A.-Forest Service for review, through OSM. BRL made a one time payment to the Forest Service to mitigate the effects of the estimated water depletion. On the basis of available information, this Division finds that the proposed operation will not affect the continued existence of threatened or endangered species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of their critical habitats (2.07.6(2)(n)). Fish and wildlife habitat is a planned post-mining land use. The applicant has selected appropriate plant species and distributions to benefit fish and wildlife (4.18(4)(1)). Protection of Underground Mining -Rule 4.19 This Section is not applicable to the Bowie No. 1 Mine permit. Subsidence Control -Rule 4.20 Subsidence is discussed on pages l36 through 165 of Section 2.05 in Volume 1. Subsidence appendices are found in Volume 3. Baseline documentation of surface water features potentially impacted by subsidence are located in Volume 4. Annual hydrologic reports and subsidence reports have been produced annually since 1982 and exist asstand-alone volumes. 36