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• ! <br />In order to adequately protect important cultural sites, American Soda will consult <br />• with the BLM in the preparation of a cultural resources treatment plan. This plan <br />will likely establish site-specific priorities among the sites discovered based on the <br />nature of the various sites, their likelihood of being disturbed by the project, and the <br />relative imminence of any such disturbance. The cultural resources treatment plan <br />will also recommend site-specific treatments and will provide a schedule for <br />implementation of such treatments. <br />Overall, it is expected that there will be some minor impacts to cultural resources <br />due to development of the Yankee Gulch Project and that mitigation will be <br />provided for important sites in the form of avoidance, recordation, or recovery. <br />Based on the results of previous cultural resources investigations for the existing <br />natural gas pipelines south of the Greasewood Compressor Station, the pipeline will <br />be sited to avoid the few known cultural resources sites along the pipeline route. <br />Therefore, it is unlikely that construction of the project pipelines would have any <br />adverse impact on cultural resources along the pipeline corridor. <br />It is also not anticipated that there would be any adverse impacts to cultural <br />resources from construction of new Facilities at the previously disturbed preferred <br />Parachute Site. <br />• Although the existence of paleontological resources has not been confirmed at the <br />Piceance Site, fossils are known to occur nearby in the same Eocene geological <br />formations that occupy the Piceance Site. Because of the extensive subsurface <br />disturbance associated with the construction of the pipeline and project surface <br />facilities, in order to protect paleontological resources that may not have been <br />discovered previously, paleontological investigations will be conducted, as needed, <br />as part of construction monitoring. Should paleontological resources be discovered <br />in the future, an appropriate treatment plan will be developed in consultation with <br />the BLM to avoid or mitigate impacts to such resources. <br />8.10 RECREATION <br />Development of the Yankee Gulch Project commercial mining operation would <br />preclude recreational activities from active working areas at the Piceance Site. <br />Given the industrial nature of the proposed mining operation, associated safety <br />hazards, and the presence of piping and other facilities that could be accidentally <br />damaged by the public, access to active mining areas and the Piceance Site processing <br />facility area would be restricted. Public access would be restricted by fencing the <br />processing facility area and the evaporation pond, posting signs prohibiting access to <br />working areas, and installing gates on key access roads leading to working areas. <br />Overall, given the limited existing recreational uses of the Piceance Site and the <br />small area that would be closed to recreation due to construction and operation of <br />• the project relative to the total area of public land that would remain available for <br />American Soda, L.L.P. 8_Z(3 <br />Commerual Mine Plan <br />August 18, 1998 <br />