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

the preferred Parachute Site would take place in areas where the native soils have
• been disturbed previously.
Impacts to soils will result from their being buried, being mixed with subsoils and
made unavailable as a growth medium, or being removed from the ecosystem by
wind or water erosion. Even soils that are stockpiled for use in reclamation will be
changed, depending on their treatment and the length of time and conditions of
stockpiling. Clearly, all soil horizons will become mixed in the process of stripping
the topsoil. Organic matter and available nutrient levels will probably decrease
through time, and populations of microorganisms may be reduced or depleted.
Primary soil structure (aggregation of soil particles) is expected to persist to some
degree, thereby providing a soil texture suitable for plant establishment.
Impacts to affected soils can be slowly reversed by effective reclamation procedures.
In the reclamation process, organic matter in the soil will increase with the
establishment of vegetation, and microorganism populations will expand in
response to increased presence of organic matter and its products. Consequently,
soil structure will increase, perhaps to levels comparable to those existing prior to
disturbance of the topsoil. Ultimately, with the reestablishment of nutrient cycling
among the soil, vegetation, and other living organisms, soil horizon development
will begin again.
• American Soda will employ procedures to stabilize construction and well field sites
to prevent excessive loss of soils by wind and water erosion, to preserve topsoils by
stockpiling for use in reclamation to the extent practicable, and to successfully
reclaim and revegetate sites as they are retired from use by the project, thereby
optimizing the potential for reestablishing effective plant-soil relationships and
functioning topsoils. Reclamation and stabilization procedures are discussed in
Section 6.0. The use of effective reclamation and stabilization procedures will
minimize adverse, long-term impacts to soils. Considering the regional distribution
of the affected soil types, the limited areal extent of surface disturbance, and the use
of reclamation and stabilization procedures, overall impacts to soils will be minor in
the long term but moderate in the short term.
8.2 SURFACE WATER AND SURFACE DRAINAGES
It is anticipated that water for the Yankee Gulch Project would be provided from
existing sources along the Colorado River. It is further anticipated that an existing
surface water right will be used during commercial mining operations to allow
water to be taken from the Colorado River via an existing intake located in the river
near the town of Parachute. From there, the water would be transported via an
existing pipeline to the Parachute Site and thence via the project return water
pipeline to the Piceance Site, where it will be used in the solution mining process.
The water right may also allow water to be withdrawn from existing water wells in
• the Parachute Creek drainage. The project will have an average consumptive water
use of approximately 1.4 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water. Potable water for the
American Soda, L.L.P. 8_'~
Commercial Mine Plan
August 18. 1998