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expanded the deposit abruptly ended at a steeply sloping underground surface separating sand and clayey sand. These buried slopes may indicate locations of former steep streambanks eroded out in the distant past. It has long been considered that the deposits here were formed by a meandering stream, but these instances were among the first times such a distinctive and geometrically well defined boundary was encountered. These instances both occurred in the pit west of the main road. In yet another instance a backhoe pit showed evidence of a suitable sand deposit, but after uncovering the ground further it was found that the backhoe had simply excavated an isolated patch of sand and, in fact, there was only a couple of feet of mineable sand over the whole area uncovered. This area was neazby another interesting sand deposit that seemed to show evidence of a swirling water flow that excavated a deep and steeply sided hole that subsequently filled with soil and sand. These patterns seem to be associated with the fact that more and more marginal sand is being found. That is, deposits within the currently allowed azea for mining aze running out and so any new deposits are small, isolated patches. This is consistent with past experience and is therefore not surprising, although it is discouraging. Finding new deposits without going into the amended lease area, which is not yet allowed due to delays in approval at the county level, is becoming next to impossible. It appears that within the remaining undisturbed land, most of which has been investigated over the years in the past, little sand is left to be mined. If another significant patch of sand cannot be found then it may become necessary to shut down the operation until county approval is acquired and work can proceed in the amended lease area. HYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS ENCOUNTERED: No groundwater was encountered in any of the mining pits operated in the past year. However, surface drainage, especially during the melting of the prodigious snowfall of last winter, became a challenge. Streams of water were flowing across the undisturbed land where streams never flowed before. Sheet flow of meltwater was also abundant. All of the meltwater created a muddy quagmire out of the site. Roads were sometimes impassible except by lazger vehicles, pockets of ground became mushy. In one instance, a front end loader was driven across an unmined area adjacent to a mining pit and the loader almost instantly sank up to the doors and had to be pulled out of the hole. Coal Creek from the East Valley north carried a very high flow of water during the meltdown of the snow, but interestingly, south of the East Valley flows were only minor. It is not known why this difference existed, but it could be due to the fact that the upland vegetation south of East Valley, having been less disturbed by grazing and other disturbance vectors as well as being a wider valley reduced runoff to a trickle. North of the East Valley as well as within and up that valley where grazing has been more intense and where there is more road surface as well as other types of disturbed land, the runoff had less opportunity to be retained and this chazged the stream to a high volume. The new low water crossing on the south end rarely even had any water flow over it and on down the channel. However, the groundwater level downstream from the low water crossing was very high producing shallow ponds where none had existed before. One would conclude from that the runoff on the south end, although high, primarily dischazged through groundwater pathways rather than surface flows. If this did occur, it is possible the groundwater dischazge path surfaced further downstream where the drainage corridor narrows and thus added to the high flow volume north of the East Valley. Status report for 2007 (July 15, 2007) Page 4 of 12