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classification has not changed. However:, in order to measure <br />the success of post-law reclamation practices, a reclaimed area • <br />surface water monitoring site will be installed by the end of 19Et8. <br />Details of this program are discussed in Section III.A. of tFiis <br />report. <br />Ground water level monitoring suggests that the degree of <br />saturation in the overburden and coal units is quite variable. <br />Saturated thicknesses range from 0 to approximately 60 feet. The <br />degree of saturation is largely to wholly attributed to seepage and <br />overflow from the adjacent Second Park irrigation ditch. Whether <br />ground water of any significance would occur naturally in the <br />overburden and coal units is questionable given the low amount of <br />annual precipitation, the impermeable nature of i;he units, and the <br />high amount of evapotranspiration. To date, only one spoils <br />monitoring well (GW-N10) has been installed at the Nucla Mine. The <br />portion of the pit in which this well was completed has not <br />resaturated. Other portions of the pit have, as indicated by <br />Spoils Springs ill and ~'2. Additional spoils wells to be installed • <br />next Sumner should help to better describe the spoils aquifer <br />system. The details of this plan are presented in Section IV.A. <br />Excavation of pits until 1983 partly disrupted the artificial <br />ground water flow system found at the Nucla Mine. The pits have <br />acted as sinks in the flow system; ground water gradients in the <br />immediate vicinity of the pits have reoriented 'in the direction of <br />the sinks (pits). Drawdowns in the saturated portions of the <br />overburden and coal units, as a result of the pit interception of <br />ground water flow, have been minimal except 'in the vicinity of <br />monitoring well GW-N8. Monitoring well GW-N8 is located <br />immediately adjacent to the pit highwall. No drawdown impacts have <br />occurred in the scraper pit area as depths of excavation appear to <br />be above the zone of saturation. There appears to have been no <br />impact to the underburden aquifer as a result of mining, but water <br />levels do fluctuate in response to irrigation recharge. , <br />106 <br />