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Summary The Review Process, Description of the Environment and Description of the Reclamation Plan. The Review Process On April 24, 1986 Coors Eneryy Company submitted an application for a permit renewal of their existing 5-year permit and an application for a permit revision which covers an additional 233 acres to be permitted for future mining. Both applications were processed concurrently as two separate requests. The permit renewal decision was published in October and will become final if no objections are filed. This document applies to the permit revision decision. Description of the Environment The Keenesburg Mine is approximately 4.5 miles north of Keenesburg, Colorado (see the location map on the following page), Ennis Draw, an ephemeral drainage, is located along the eastern boundary of the permit area. No stream, river, or other body of water lies within the mine site. The post-mining use of the affected land is rangeland. The permit area is located on level to gently rolling topography consisting of fine sand, which is wind-deposited material overlying weathered residual shale. The sand varies in depth from about 5 feet to 20 feet, is highly to moderately permeable, and i5 highly susceptible to wind erosion. For these reasons, the land Capability is classified as VIe for dryland farming and IV for irrigated farming. The proposed non-irrigated site is classified as Rangeland by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, as shown on page 37 of the permit application, general soil map of Weld County, Colorado. The land is a kind of rangeland that can not support a variety of uses under existing technologies and local resources. All attempts at dryland farming on the area have been abandoned, and the damage caused by those attempts will remain evident for may decades. Otherwise, the land is moderately to well stabilized by a sandsage-prairie sandreed plant association that is used primarily for grazing by cattle in summer months. Reliable information on land productivity is not available. The Soil Conservation Service lists median-year herbage production at 1,800 pounds per acre air dry for the Deep Sand Range Site with an average annual precipitation of 15 inches. Fort Lupton, which has an average annual precipitation of 12.5 inches, provides the best estimate of precipitation at the area proposed for mining. With that amount of precipitation, an average production of 800 to 1,000 pounds per acre would be expected. Because of the low relief and deep, well drained soils, surface runoff. Therefore, no streams springs or seeps All water flows subsurface through Aeolian deposits to drainage. Ennis draw appears to be a complex, braided, that has been covered by windblown sand. It discharges north into Box Elder Creek. there is virtually no exist in the area. =nnis draw an ephemeral ancient stream bed several miles to the -4-