PERMFILE123597

• Permit No: C1996083A
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 1/15/2002
• Section_Exhibit Name: Rule 2.04 Environmental Resources
• Media Type: D
• Archive: Yes

• 2.04.8
The Wilcox ranch weather station was moved to the West
Elk Mine next to its wastewater treatment plant in
November 1983. This station was moved again in 1993 to
the southeast corner of the mine's fresh water pond FW-1.
This station is named Somerset lE.
Two other weather stations provide precipitation data for
the general area. They are both located in Paonia, the
first is called Paonia 3SE with a period of record from
1905 to 1957. The other is the Paonia lSW with a period
of record from 1957 to 1993.
Given the proximity to the proposed mine site, the Wilcox
Ranch weather station provides the most representative
precipitation data for permit and adjacent area.
Detail data sheets for the four weather stations are
presented in Exhibit 4. They were provided by the
Colorado Climate Center, Department of Atmospheric
Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO,
• 80523-1371, phone [phone].
(1)(b) The average direction and velocity of the prevailing
winds.
The following discussion of the prevailing wind is taken
from the Bowie No. 1 Mine permit document pages 60 and
61.
The local climate of the North Fork airshed is strongly
influenced by microclimatic features - slope, aspect,
elevation, soil type, soil moisture content and
vegetation. For example, the warmest surfaces in mid-
winter are the lower elevation, unvegetated, steep
southfacing slopes (- 50°) while in mid-summer the
warmest surfaces are those with only 12-20° slope. The
steepness of the terrain, together with its type and
amount of vegetation, orientation and range of elevation
are the major controls of the diurnal wind patterns.
Durinq a warm sunny day, the heating of the sunlit valley
slope causes the adjacent air to warm and rise. A
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