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' Mountains. southwest of the lease area. but before the stream crosses the <br />mine lease area. the City of Florence diverts the entire flow most of the <br />year. The City maintains a surface diversion and an infiltration gallery <br />' to collect both surface flow and subsurface alluvial flow from Newlin <br />Creek. The collected water ie diverted by pipeline to storage reservoirs <br />below the diversion structures. Typically. water flows in Newlin Creek <br />below the City's diversions only during infrequent periods of high <br />discharge. The water rights owned by the City of Florence are the only <br />rights located on Newlin Creek and since they normally divert almost all <br />available streamflow. they are limited only by physical supply. According <br />to the District Water Commissioner. the only times the City of Florence <br />does not divert all available streamflow are for short periods during very <br />high runoff from spring snowmelt or summer thunderstorms. <br />The headwaters of the Newlin Creek drainage basin (see Figure 1) are above <br />10.000 feet in elevation and receive substantial amounts of snow. <br />Although Newlin Creek is not gaged by the D.S. Geological Survey. <br />streamflow can be inferred from the diversions by the City of Florence <br />(Table 1). The records reveal that nearly two-thirds of the average <br />1 annual runoff occurred during the three spring months of April, May and <br />l1 June - a direct result of snowmelt. Since snowfall and enowpack <br />accumulation generally increase with elevation. high areas of a snowmelt <br />drainage basin contribute more to spring runoff than low areas. The <br />Southfield Mine lease property lies at an elevation range of between 6.100 <br />and 6.700 feet. which ie relatively low in the basin and experiences <br />relatively little snowpack accumulation. As a result. this land area <br />contributes little to Newlin Creek's total amount of runoff. <br />The primary coal bearing formation in the synclinal basin is the Vermejo. <br />which ie approximately 925 feet thick near the center of the lease area. <br />1 A generalized stratigraphic column of the mine site vicinity is shown on <br />Figure 4. The coal units currently being mined by Energy Fuels Coal. Inc. <br />are the Red Arrow and Dirty Jack O'Lantern. which lie approximately 325 <br />1 <br />- 7 - <br />