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

mitigated by restoration of the affected area. No other impacts to wetlands or
• riparian habitats would occur in the Piceance Creek watershed.
Two pipeline stream crossings would occur in the Parachute Creek watershed. The
first would be a crossing of West Fork Parachute Creek, and the second would be a
crossing of fhe mainstem Parachute Creek. It is likely that some riparian vegetation
impacts (e.g., removal of cottonwood trees) would result from construction of one
or both of these stream crossings. Impacts to wetlands would be minimal because
wetland areas at these locations are confined to the ordinary high-water mark of
Parachute Creek.
Clean Water Act Section 404 permits will be obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (ACOE) for these access road stream crossing and pipeline stream crossing
construction activities, and these permits will include special conditions including
restoration of affected areas.
8.8 THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES
8.8.1 Plants
Previous botanical surveys identified three sites within the Piceance Site that should
be avoided because of the presence of federally listed threatened or endangered plant
• species (Young and Young 1995, Young and Young 1996). These three populations
of Dudley Bluffs twinpod are located near the southern boundary of the Piceance
Site on hillsides near Horse Draw (Figure 7-23). No project facilities or commercial
mining activities are currently planned that could affect these populations.
As discussed in Section 7.9.1, additional surveys of the Piceance Site and part of the
pipeline corridor are being conducted during the summer of 1998, and the results of
these surveys will be provided to the BLM upon completion. Any additional
populations located during the surveys will be avoided in the siting of project
facilities, and such populations will be fenced or flagged, as appropriate.
As a result of avoidance, no impacts to federally listed threatened or endangered
plant species are anticipated.
As indicated in Section 7.9.1, the pipeline corridor passes through a number of
geographical sections that have been documented to be the locations of plant species
considered by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program to be rare or sensitive even
though they have no federal threatened or endangered status (see Figure 7-25).
Potentiai impacts to these plant species will be assessed in consultation with the
BLM on asite-specific basis based on final pipeline routing and specific known
species site locations.
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American Soda, L.L.P. 8-26
Commercial Mine Plan
August I8, ]998