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2.2 Land Use <br />a~ <br />On the mine plan area, land use consists of grazing on undeveloped <br />rangeland and some dryland wheat Farming. In areas surrounding [he mine, <br />urban woodland, and irrigated agricultural lands also exist. Exhibit II <br />presents a land use map of Pfoffat County prepared by the Soil <br />Conservation Service. Peters (1979) found that no prime farmland exists <br />on the mine plan area (Appendix B). <br />3.0 Surface Water Hydrology <br />Alluvial valley floors are defined in 30 CFR 701.5 as "...unconsolidated <br />stream laid deposits holding streams with water availability sufficient <br />•~ for subirrigation or flood irrigation agricultural activities'..." Fur- <br />ther, the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial valley floors are <br />defined as ".:.the role of collecting storing, regulating and making the <br />natural flow of surface or groundwater, or both usefully available for <br />agricultural activies..." In both definitions the importance of surface <br />water is shown, firs[ in [he deposition of material [hat forms the <br />alluvial aquifer and secondly as [he water which is collected, stored, <br />regulated and made available. The flow regime of a stream is therfore <br />important in two ways. Firs[, it determines along with the geology of <br />the area the nature of the material laid down as [he alluvial aquifer and <br />Che morphology of the aquifer and channel. Second, it determines if and <br />when water is made available for collection, storage and regulation. <br />~' <br />-3- <br />