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agreements under Exhibit S. Further, it is important to determine what the potential impact to the surrounding area is so that structures or systems that are outside of the sphere of influence aze not included unnecessarily. The division is aware that the applicant has committed to instituting a well monitoring program to determine if and when adverse impacts may occur. This will include installation of monitoring wells on or around the permit azea as well as monitoring existing wells. The division has a couple of suggestions with respect to such a plan. First, since there is presently a pit operating north of what is identified as mine areas 3 and 4, installation of monitoring wells south and east of that pit at regularly spaced intervals could provide a good picture of how the groundwater table might be expected to behave once mining begins on this site. These wells could be installed as soon as crops aze off and monitoring could begin this fall. Second, along this same line, it would be possible to change the mining sequence and begin mining in "Mine Area 5" while conducting monitoring in "Mine Area 1" in an attempt to better define the groundwater table behavior. There aze two existing irrigation wells located on Nix property that could be monitored during this time along with installing new monitoring wells in the "Mine Area 1". This would offer an opportunity to implement mitigation of irrigation water, (assuming the wells are impacted) which is probably going to be easier to implement than the potential impacts to trees or wetlands that is likely to occur if mining begins in "Mine Area 1" or "Mine Area 3". This would also allow the groundwater table under "Mine Area 1" to be manipulated by experimenting with vazious recharge scenarios such as injection wells or infiltration basins or infiltration trenches or some combination thereof that could prove useful if monitoring demonstrates that the wetlands will be impacted. With respect to the potential impact on surface and groundwater, these are merely suggestions. However, the division is requiring more detailed information on the potential impact of these systems so that additional analysis can be performed before a decision on this application can be rendered. The specifics of what information is being requested can be found in Exhibit G. MINING METHODS The proposal to mine the site with vertical highwalls creates some problems with respect to stability, both during and after mining. The stability issue is discussed in more detail under Exhibit 6.5 and depending on the results of a requested stability analysis, the backfilled material may need to be placed in lifts and properly compacted in order to achieve long-term stability. A second problem with this method is that it requires a significant amount of backfill, some of which must be imported from off-site. Importation and placement of this material can be very costly and is discussed in more detail under Exhibit L. Bottom line is that the division will have to bond for this activity. A possible alternative would be to mine the slopes at 2H:1 V, thereby, leaving the desired post-mining slopes in place. The obvious down-side to this is that a lot of extractable material remains in place once mining is completed. The division simply wants the