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The Minnesota Creek drainage extends approximately 53.5 square miles. <br />Twenty-five percent of the drainage is located within the Mt Gunnison No 1 <br />permit boundary. Minnesota Creek is fed by two major tributaries--the East <br />Fork of Minnesota Creek and the Dry Fork of Minnesota Creek. The latter is <br />fed by a trans-basin diversion (Deep Creek Ditch) from the Little Gunnison <br />Creek. Water from the Lake Fork, South Fork, Horse Creek, South Prong Creek <br />and Lick Creek drain into the East Fork of Minnesota Creek. <br />The evaluation of flow within the Minnesota Creek drainage can only be <br />considered an approximation due to infiltration and seepage losses, seasonal <br />variations in precipitation and potential evaporation and sampling <br />difficulties. Nevertheless, approximately 1,000 acre-feet is annually <br />transferred from the Little Gunnison Creek to the Dry Fork of Minnesota Creek, <br />and the average annual flow of the East Fork of Minnesota Creek is <br />19,920 acre-feet (Table 5). Irrigation ditches annually remove <br />20,000 acre-feet from Minnesota Creek, <br />Water quality data has been collected at several sites throughout the <br />Minnesota Creek drainage. The data indicate that these waters are of a <br />calcium bicarbonate type with relatively low total dissolved solids <br />concentration. <br />Two reservoirs are located within the Minnesota Creek drainage. Minnesota <br />Reservoir is located on Dry Fork. It has a decreed capacity of <br />1,285 acre-feet. The actual capacity may be closer to 500 acre-feet, <br />however. Beaver Reservoir is located on the East Fork of Minnesota Creek and <br />has an absolute decreed capacity of 1,620 acre-feet and a conditional decree <br />of 522 acre-feet. Both reservoirs store water for irrigation purposes and are <br />filled during spring runoff. fiey are usually drained by late August or early <br />September. <br />Minnesota Reservoir nlY affect the water quality characteristics of the Dry <br />Fork. Detention of Dry Fork flows in Minnesota Reservoir results in a <br />decrease in total suspended solids (TSS), slight increases in temperature, <br />total dissolved solids, alkalinity and pH. The latter four may be a result of <br />evaporation losses. <br />There are over a hundred (100) springs located throughout the Mt. Gunnison <br />life-ofanine area. Measurements indicate that spring flows generally decrease <br />from a high in the early summer to a low in the fall. A number of the springs <br />are ephemeral, indicating that their sources are small localized aquifers <br />(i.e. landslide deposits, colluvium, lenticular sandstones, etc.). there are <br />a total of thirteen (13) decreed spring water rights on or near the Mt. <br />Gunnison permit area. <br />Four separate drainages are located within or adjacent to the Orchard Valley <br />Mine; Terror Creek drains the eastern portion of the life-of-mine area; and <br />East and West Roatcap Creek drain the western portion; Steven's Gulch is an <br />ephemeral drainage between the Terror Creek and Roatcap Creek drainage basins <br />and drains the central part of the permit area. These streams drain directly <br />to the North Fork or are intercepted by the Fire Mountain Canal. <br />-11- <br />