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A, Introduction and Background for the General Area <br />The Empire Energy Eagle No. 5 and No. 6 Mines fall within the general area <br />examined in a Cumulative Hydrologic Impact Study prepared for Foidel Creek <br />Mine in 1987. (See Figure 5), This CHIS considered the surface water impacts <br />of coal mining on the Yampa River above the ll. S. Geological Survey gaging <br />station at Maybell, Colorado. The 1987 study included all coal mining <br />anticipated at that time (Table 1). The projected hydrologic effects of the <br />Eagle No. 5 and 6 Mirtes have been revised to reflect the mine plan as <br />described in the current application. The probable hydrologic consequences of <br />the individual mines in the general area are summarized in the 1987 study. <br />The probable hydrologic consequences of the Eagle No. 5 and No. 6 Mines are <br />discussed in sub-section D of this section of this findings document. <br />Definition of Anticipated Mining in the General Area <br />The surface water and ground water general areas for this CHIS do not coincide <br />(Figures 3 and 5). The surface water general area includes all of the Yampa <br />River watershed above the U. S. G, S. gaging station at Maybell. This <br />incorporates the genera] areas for the previous Yampa River Cumulative <br />Hydrologic Impact Studies. The ground water general area is smaller because <br />of structural limitations discussed below. <br />Structural basins strongly influence the direction of ground water flow in <br />contiguous regional aquifers and thus, those areas which are considered <br />hydrologically adjacent, For purposes of a CHIS, this means that the impacts <br />to ground water in adjacent structural basins are considered separate except <br />to the extent that those basins interact through some component of the surface <br />water system, The ground water impacts of mining within a distinct structural <br />basin are analyzed and the sum of those impacts are considered as they affect <br />both the ground water and surface water systems. Since the Eagle No. 5 and 6 <br />Mines have proposed life-of-mine areas within the Big Bottom Structural Basin <br />(see Figure 3), the ground water portions of this CHIS are limited to <br />analyzing the cumulative impacts of anticipated mining within these basins. <br />The cumulative hydrologic impact of mining in other strucutral basins along <br />the Yampa River have been considered as they interact with the surface water <br />systems in previous cumulative hydrologic impacts studies and are therefore <br />considered as a component of the surface water portions of this CHIS. Coal <br />mining operations in the surface water study area are summarized in Table 1, <br />Anticipated mining in the ground water general area include both surface and <br />underground mines (See Figure 3). They are as follows. <br />Trapper Mining, Inc. - Trapper Mine, CMLRD Permit No. C-81-Oi0 <br />Empire Energy Corporation - Eagle No. 5 and 6 Mines - CMLRD File <br />No. C-81-044 <br />-20- <br />