GENERAL55787

• Permit No: M1999002
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 8/18/1998
• Doc Name: COMMERCIAL MINE PLAN SUBMITTED TO BLM SECTION 8
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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8.0 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND MITIGATION MEASURES
Impacts related to the Yankee Gulch Project will be related to development of
solution mining and associated initial processing facilities at the Piceance Site,
development of final processing facilities and transportation facilities at the
Parachute Site, and construction of intervening pipelines to transport process
solutions and return water between the two sites. The assessments of
environmental impacts related to these development activities are based on the
following general design elements for the project, as described in previous sections
of this commercial mine plan.
• The initial recovery design basis is 1.4 million tons per year (tpy) of nahcolite
to be processed into sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and other sodium
products over the first 30 years of operation.
• The project will have an average consumptive water use of approximately 1.4
cubic foot per second (cfs} of water. It is anticipated that an existing water
right will be used to allow process water to be taken from the Colorado River
via an existing intake located in the river near the town of Parachute.
• Heat for solution mining and product processing will be produced by on-site
• natural gas-fired boilers at the Piceance Site and the Parachute Site.
• Electrical power will be supplied via an existing transmission line in the
Parachute Creek valley and from a new transmission line to be installed near
the Piceance Site.
• Mining panels will be developed according to the 5-year time intervals, i.e.,
during Year 0 through Year 5, during Year 5 through Year 10, etc. At any one
time, the disturbed area in the well field will roughly approximate the size of
one to two mining panels.
• Development of the Piceance Site will result in significant disturbance of up
to approximately 2,000 acres over the first 30 years of mining operations. The
surface disturbance at any one time will be limited to approximately 125 acres
to 200 acres, averaging about 172 acres. The actual physical disturbance in any
mining panel will be much less.
• Reclamation will be on-going and will significantly reduce the total amount
of area disturbed at any given time.
• Within the mining panels, wells will be spaced on 300-foot centers. About 26
• wells will be developed for the initial operations, and a total of between 61
American Soda, L.L.P. S_1
Commercial Mine Plan
August 78, ]996