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• 1.0 INTRODUCTION <br />Picketwire Processing LLC (Picketwire) owns and operates the New Elk underground coal <br />mine and prepazation plant in southern Colorado. This report presents the hydrologic <br />monitoring activities conducted at the mine during 2002. and analysis of trends over a <br />nineteen-year monitoring period. The remainder of this section describes the mine site azea <br />and the current hydrologic monitoring program. Section 2.0 describes the monitoring <br />methods used for the program while Section 3.0 provides the monitoring data for 2002. Also <br />included in this report is a discussion of mitigative measures undertaken to minimize <br />disturbance to area hydrologic functions (Section 4.0) and plans for future hydrologic <br />monitoring activities (Section 5.0). Data and information related to this assessment are <br />presented as Appendices of this report. <br />1.1 SITE DESCRIPTION <br />The New Elk east portal area is located three miles east of Stonewall and seven miles west of <br />Weston in T33S, R68W in Las Animas County, Colorado. The mine is situated in <br />mountainous tenain with numerous canyons contributing mnoff to the drainages of <br />ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial streams of the azea (see Map 8, Regional Hydrology in <br />the Permit Document). The New Elk mine is located on the Middle Fork of the Purgatoire <br />River, about I.5 miles upstream of the confluence of the North Fork. Most surface facilities <br />of the mine are adjacent, and underground mining occurred under and to the north and south <br />of, the Purgatoire River, in an azea known as the Picketwire Valley. Underground activities at <br />• the New Elk mine have ceased, and the mine was sealed in 1989. Surface facilities and coal <br />processing activities aze the most visible indicators of coal mining activity in the area. <br />The Purgatoire River is the primary stream drainage in the area of the mine. The headwaters <br />of the Purgatoire are located on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range <br />west of the mine area. The general direction of stream flow is easterly to the confluence with <br />the Arkansas River, also in Las Animas County. The principal tributary of the Purgatoire <br />River which drains in the vicinity of the mine permit area is Apache Canyon. Apache Canyon <br />drains a watershed of approximately 7,264 acres. Cover in the canyon is primazily woodland <br />with a herbaceous valley bottom. Primary land use is grazing and wildlife habitat. Surface <br />mine features within the Apache Canyon (on the left fork) include two ventilation shafts for <br />the now inactive New Elk mine. These shafts have been transferred to the Golden Eagle mine <br />permit ,and the Golden Eagle mine assumed the reclamation liability for the facilities. <br />Portions of Apache Canyon have been under mined (by room and pillar mining). Apache <br />Canyon discharges into the Purgatoire River above the Golden Eagle mine reclaimed azea. <br />Apache Canyon was determined not to meet alluvial valley floor criteria. <br />The geologic setting is an important factor when analyzing hydrology of an azea. Stratigraphy <br />in the region of the mine ranges in age from Pre-Cambrian to Quaternary. However, only <br />portions of the Raton Formation (see Figure 1.1-1) and recent alluvial deposits are exposed in <br />the area of the mine. Most of the formation consists of very fine to medium grained <br />sandstone interbedded with siltstone and shale. Coal that was mined at the New Elk is located <br />• neaz the middle of the Raton Formation. The outcrop of the formation in the area may be <br />