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Six major ephemeral drainages dissect the study area. The northeastern 009 and southeastern . 010 drainages are approximately 1.7 and 2.3 miles in length, respectively, both flowing in a northerly direction through deeply incised canyons that empty into Sage Creek. Numerous small ponds have been created by man and beaver along these drainages. The northwestern 005 and southwestern 006 drainages are about 1.7 and 3.0 miles in length, respectively, both flowing in a northwesterly direction through intensely dissected clay knob uplands and moderately incised canyons that empty into Dry Creek and Hubberson Gulch. The 015 drainage is approximately 2.2 miles in length and drains north to empty into Sage Creek. The 016 drainage is approximatley 1.2 in length and drains northwest into Hubberson Gulch. A detailed discussion of the Seneca II-W surface water system is presented in Tab 7 of this PAP. The terrain is characterized by barren and sparsely brush covered southwestward facing cliffs where the more resistant sandstone outcrops, and broad west facing moderately sloping benches and ridges that are deeply incised. The long sloping landforms of these areas roughly coincide with the strike and dip of the underlying bedrock. Rounded shale knobs and ridges are common in the northern and southwestern portions of the mine permit area. Large remnant sandstone ledges and outcrops occur immediately west of the 010 drainage, north of the 005 drainage, and west of Hubberson Gulch. Vegetation. The baseline vegetation survey for the study area is presented in Tab 10 of this PAP. Six dominant vegetation types, mixed brush, sagebrush, aspen, steep mountain brush, mesic drainage, and western wheatgrass-alkali sagebrush, and four miscellaneous land types (rock outcrop, disturbed land, water, and existing roads) occur within the mine study area. Six dominant vegetation types, wheat cropland, mountain big sagebrush, low sagebrush, greasewood, disturbed meadow, and disturbed riparian occur within the Tie-Across Haul Road study area. Sagebrush, steep mountain brush, or forb communities comprise most of the south and southwest facing slopes, including many of the very steep nearly barren ridges and cliffs. Sagebrush or western wheatgrass-alkali sagebrush comprise most of the gently rounded soft shale knobs and ridges. The mixed brush type occurs dominantly on the steeply sloping sandstone bedrock controlled sideslopes. Aspen communities occur on the northern aspect of deeply incised steeply sloping ephemeral drainages, very steep sideslopes with northern and northeastern aspects, and in drainage bottoms. Mountain meadow and mesic drainage communities are present on the four dominant ephemeral drainages which have moderately deep to deep ground water levels. The gently rolling terrain of the Tie-Across Haul Road corridor is planted in winter wheat in many areas, depending on local slope and soil conditions. Steeper slopes are covered with the • mountain big sagebrush or low sagebrush vegetation communities. A small amount of greasewood occurs in the west end of the haul road corridor. A disturbed meadow type 5 Revised 9/98