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4-4 <br />• 4.1.2.5 Alluvial Valley Floor <br />East Salt Creek is an intermittent stream in a valley 800 to 1,000 feet wide. The soils are <br />torrifluvents and the vegetation is Greasewood Shrubland. The land use of the area is <br />rangeland. This undeveloped rangeland has a low productivity (approximately 0.5 AUM) and is <br />not significant to farming. This fact is substantiated by a review of the map "Important <br />Farmlands of Garfield County, Colorado". (USDA, SCS, and CSU Experimental Station, 1979) <br />which illustrates that the site has no prime, unique, or important farmlands. <br />The mine is located at an elevation of 5,605 feet in a side valley with production coming <br />from the Cameo Coal Seam. Drilling results downdip (north east) of the mine indicate that the <br />coal seam is dry and that there is a water bearing sandstone 210' below the Cameo Seam in the <br />area of the portals. In the area northeast of the portals the mine has encountered water. Since <br />the drillhole downdip of the mine indicates that the seam is dry, it is assumed that the mine is <br />currently in an area of a perched aquifer that may or may not have communication with the <br />groundwater in the alluvial valley floor. Any excess water encountered in the mine is pumped <br />• from the mine where it enters the groundwater system again. <br />The mines will not have a detrimental impact upon the groundwater of the East Salt Creek <br />Valley. This is based partially on the relative sizes of the operation and the size of the aquifer. ft <br />is also based on the fact that the groundwater contained in the alluvium is substandard. East <br />Creek is an accurate name. The water contained in the alluvium is unusable. Field water <br />sampling has shown that the conductivity of the groundwater is extremely high. Samples of <br />water in one well have shown conductivity above 100,000 micromohs. <br />Recently, the local rancher developed a well in the alluvium of East Salt Creek. The water <br />from the well was so poor that it could not be used for any beneficial purpose. There are about <br />five domestic water users in the area. Each must truck water over 20 miles to the area for <br />domestic use. This preponderance of evidence that the groundwater is unusable would indicate <br />that even if the groundwater from the mine did mix with the groundwater of the East Salt Creek <br />alluvium, no detrimental effect would occur. <br /> <br />M~ Volume 1 4 - 29 - 96 <br />