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<br />~.i1 <br />R. G. OTTO & ASSOCIATES <br />';: <br />Because the runoff streams adjacent to the pile mingle immediately <br />with runoff from the road and other areas upslope of the road, it <br />is not possible to identify or sample zunoff that might b• <br />occurring from the pile or to measure its llow. <br />These observations do not address the question of whether any of <br />the water that percolates through the waste rock pile but fails to <br />exit (visably) at the bottom periphery subsequently percolates <br />through the less permeable baseaeat soil and enters the ground <br />eater. The surface are; o! the west waste rock pile is oa the <br />order of three acres which is fairly soall relative to the volume <br />o! the pil• (3,200,000 cubic feet). Average annual precipitation <br />~w~ <br />is this relatively arid region is about 20 inches or about 220,000 <br />cubic feet for the total suzface of the west waste rock pile. <br />Obviously all of this precipitation does not come at one time. <br />Howevez, if it did, this would add up to only about O.C7 cubic <br />feet of water foz every cubic foot of waste (7% by volume). This <br />volume of water is equivalent to about 15-20 minutes of stream <br />llow past the waste sock pil• during the spring runoff period. The <br />stream has a very high dilution capacity relative to the <br />'theoretical' total volume of watez available as runoff from the <br />waste rock pile. <br />The volume of input water to volume of waste rock relationship is <br />~;,j pertinent because, a portion of the water that percolates into the <br />waste rock pile is retained in the piles as a consequence of the <br />25 <br />