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document shows the locations of the known stock water ponds. These ponds generally do not <br />represent adjudicated water rights or perennial flows. Within the Gunnison National Forest, the <br />ponds aze managed for seasonal use by the U.S. Forest Service. <br />Wetlands have also been identified within the permit azea. Based upon inspection of <br />conventional and infra-red aerial photographs and reconnaissance-level field investigation, there <br />are estimated to be 2 to 3 acres of wetlands (as defined by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) in <br />the Apache Rocks permit revision azea. Most of the wetlands aze found in drainage channels, <br />although there are small, isolated wetlands on the hillsides where springs and seeps occasionally <br />emerge as a result of landslides/sumps. <br />Climatoloeical Information -Rules 2.04.8 <br />Information regazding climate characteristics can be found in Section 2.04.3 and 2.04.8 of West <br />Elk's permit application. <br />The mine site lies within the North Fork valley neaz Somerset, Colorado. At the mine site the <br />valley is narrow and steep sided and follows a general east-west orientation. Considerable <br />topographic variation across the mine site, and west central Colorado in general, results in <br />mazked fluctuation in seasonal and average precipitation and temperature values for the entire <br />area. <br />The mountains of the Continental Divide provide an effective bamer to the movement of <br />moisture-laden air that reaches the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf of <br />Mexico. Under this influence, two basic types of climate, semi-arid and undifferentiated <br />highlands, are characteristic of the general area where the mine is situated. Temperatures can <br />range below freezing in the winter, and yet in the summer, with the exception of higher <br />elevations, can be extremely warm. The precipitation that does fall, originates from the Pacific <br />Ocean weather systems, and most frequently occurs in the winter. <br />Average annual precipitation ranges from approximately ten inches along the North Fork of the <br />Gunnison River and the lower portion of Minnesota Creek to as much as 24 inches on the flanks <br />of Mount Gunnison. The majority of precipitation falls as snow during the winter months, while <br />the spazse summer precipitation consists of isolated thunderstorms. <br />Soils -Rule 2.04.9 <br />Soil Resource Information can be found in Section 2.04.9 in the permit document. More specific <br />information relating to soil mapping units can be found in Exhibit 27, Exhibit 28, Exhibit 29, <br />Exhibit 30, and on Maps 40 and 41. <br />Soils of the West Elk Mine were mapped during the summer of 1976. Throughout the soil <br />survey, "mapping units" were used to characterize the soils in the mine area. These survey <br />mapping units are combinations of Soil Families or selected Great Groups and Subgroups <br />according to the system of soil taxonomy used in the National Soil Survey Program of the United <br />States. During the summer of 1993 the soils of the Jumbo Mountain Tract were mapped utilizing <br />30 <br />