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5. Effects on Human and Natural Resources <br />• <br />The underground disposal of coal mining wastes proposed by Western Slope <br />Carbon will remove the need for surface disposal (via landfill), which is <br />costly and generally unacceptable environmentally. The system proposed herein <br />should pose no adverse environmental effects with regard to local cultural <br />and wildlife resources. Water removed in the mechanical dewatering process <br />will be returned to the preparation plant for reuse and will therefore not <br />interact with surface aquatic and terrestrial systems. The remaining nonrecov- <br />erable water contained in the slurry disposal mixture will be replaced by water <br />pumped from the North Fork adjacent to the preparation plant. Normal consump- <br />tion of replacement water will be approximately 215 acre feet of water per year <br />pumped at a rate of 100 gallons per minute (GPM). This quantity coupled with <br />other consumptive uses at Haak's Nest is well below the amount alloted to WSC <br />• by detailed Water Use Agreement with Fire Mountain Canal and Reservoir Company <br />(Appendix C). Effects of water removal from the river on aquatic organisms <br />would be negligible. Assuming a normal pumping rate of 100 GPM at the record <br />minimum daily discharge of 17 cfs (reported at Somerset by USGS), maximum re- <br />moval would be equivalent to only 1.3 percent of instantaneous river discharge. <br />• <br />50 <br />