Laserfiche WebLink
-2y- <br />There are a total of eleven springs and seeps within or adjacent to the <br />Hawk's Nest Mines, three are perennial. The maximum total flow from all <br />springs during the summer of 1982 was 16.085 gpm. <br />The Somerset Mine has mine workings below the surface facilities along <br />both Elk and Bear Creeks. These streams are ephemeral and intermittent <br />respectively, and drain directly to the North Fork. Bear Creek is <br />perennial below the Somerset Mine's discharge point, where the stream <br />flow is sustained by the mine discharge. <br />Both the Blue Ribbon and the Somerset mines have surface facilities and <br />underground workinys within the Hubbard Creek Drainage Basin. During <br />1980, Hubbard Creek flows ranged from 3 cfs to 130 cfs with an average <br />flow of 31 cfs. The estimated annual yield for Hubbard Creek was 24,700 <br />acre-feet/year, or 8~ of the total flow of the North Fork for the year <br />1980, measured at Somerset, Colorado. Water quality data for Hubbard <br />Creek are presented in Tables 4a and 4b. <br />In a preliminary Spring Survey conducted at the Blue Ribbon Mine site, <br />only one ephemeral spring was noted and mapped. This spring is located <br />below the Blue Ribbon Mine bench. A survey of Water Rights records <br />conducted by the State Water Resources Division for the Somerset Mine <br />revealed that there are no adjudicated springs tributary to Hubbard Creek <br />on or adjacent to the permit areas of the Blue Ribbon and Somerset mines. <br />Three separate drainages are located within or adjacent to the Orchard <br />Valley t4ine; Terror Creek drains the eastern portion of the life-of-mine <br />area; and fast and West koatcap Creek drain the western portion; Stevens <br />Gulch is an ephemeral drainage between the Terror Creek and Roatcap Creek <br />drainage oasins which drains the permit area. Stevens Gulch has a <br />drainage area of 6.0 square miles. four other un-named ephemeral streams <br />drain areas within the Urchard Valley life-of-mine area. These streams <br />drain directly to the North Fork or the Fire Mountain Canal. <br />The entire Roatcap Creek system contains no alluvial deposits due to the <br />steep topography and overall drainage gradient. One irrigation ditch, <br />the Overland Ditch, follows the topographic contours between the upper <br />koatcap Creek Drainage Basin to the upper West Muddy Creek Drainage Basin. <br />There are several springs and numerous ponds within the permit and <br />hydrologically adjacent area of the Urchard Valley Mine. It appears <br />that, from the data submitted to date, most of these springs and ponds <br />are intermittent and depend upon seasonal precipitation and long-term <br />weather patterns. The source of most of the springs appears to be <br />related to landslide complexes, faults and fractures, areas of <br />colluvium/alluvium where ground water has accumulated, or the discharge <br />points at the basal contact of the Rollins sandstone and lenticular <br />sandstones of the Mesaverde Formation. <br />