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• Land Use Potential. One of the most important resources for agricultural development in drough t-prone Colorado is ground water. According to the "Potential Available Ground Water" map published by the Colorado Land Use Commission in 1974, there are virtually no ground water resources available in the Seneca II-W Mine Permit Area. The site specific ground water investigations conducted in the Mine Permit Area (Tab 7) substantiate this conclusion. The potential for non-irrigated agriculture on the Mine Permit Area is severely limited or not practical. This evaluation is based on field observations and the Soil Conservation ~~ Service Land Capability Classes for the Mine Permit Area. Under this system, land is classified according to the most suitable sustained use that it can supply while providing for adequate protection from erosion or other deterioration (i.e. loss of fertility, loss ' of soil structure, etc.). The Mine Permit Area is generally listed as Class IV and Class V sails. Class IV soils have severe limitations on the choice of crops and require very careful and intensive management if cropped. Class V soils are not suited to cultivation for reasons other than erasion, and are generally used for grazing, woodland, wildlife habitat or recreation. The main factors contributing to Class IV and V soils in the Permit • Area are shallow, rocky or clayey soils, steep slopes, and short growing season. In general, none of the Mine Permit Area soils can be considered to be Prime Farmland soils as slopes average much greater than ten percent, and the soils have cryic (i.e., cold) temperature regimes. Thus, steep slopes, poor soil conditions, lack of ground water resources, a short growing season, and a lack of precipitation during the growing season all work against agricultural development in the Mine Permit Area. As a consequence, ~' . "rangeland" and "wildlife habitat" which is currently the dominant use of land within the permit area is likely to continue to be the dominant future land use as well (see Photo 6, Appendix 4-1). For more detailed information on soils, see Tab 9, Soil Survey, Seneca II- W Permit Application. stori cal Mining Activi Neither existing maps nor available records give any indication of previous mining i activity in the Seneca II-W Mine Permit Area. An analysis of aerial photography as well as an on-site inspection also proved negative in the search for historical mining • activity. 15