REP43535

• Permit No: C1981012
• IBM Index Class Name: REPORT
• Doc Date: 3/20/2007
• Doc Name: 2006 Annual Hydrology Report
• From: Peak Project Management, LLC
• To: DRMS
• Annual Report Year: 2006
• Permit Index Doc Type: Hydrology Report
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

1.0 INTRODUCTION
~ Picketwire Processing LLC (Picketwire) owns and operates the New Elk underground coal
mine and preparation plant in southern Colorado. This report presents the hydrologic
monitoring activities conducted at the mine during 2006 and analysis of trends over atwenty-
two yeaz monitoring period. The remainder of this section describes the mine site area and
the current hydrologic monitoring program. Section 2.0 describes the monitoring methods
used for the program while Section 3.0 provides the monitoring data for 2006. Also included
in this report is a discussion of mitigative measures undertaken to minimize disturbance to
azea hydrologic functions (Section 4.0) and plans for future hydrologic monitoring activities
(Section 5.0). Data and information related to this assessment aze presented as Appendices
of this report.
1.1 SITE DESCRIPTION
The New Elk east portal area is located three miles east of Stonewall and seven miles west of
Weston in T33S, R68W in Las Animas County, Colorado. The mine is situated in
mountainous terrain with numerous canyons contributing runoff to the drainages of
ephemeral, internrittent, and perennial streams of the area (see Map 8, Regional Hydrology in
the Permit Document). The New Elk mine is located on the Middle Fork of the Purgatoire
River, about 1.5 miles upstream of the confluence of the North Fork. Most surface facilities
of the mine aze adjacent, and underground mining occurred under and to the north and south
of, the Purgatoire River, in an azea known as the Picketwire Valley. Underground activities
. at the New Elk mine have ceased, and the mine was sealed in 1989. Surface facilities and
coal processing activities are the most visible indicators of coal mining activity in the area.
The Purgatoire River is the primary stream drainage in the azea of the mine. The headwaters
of the Purgatoire are located on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range
west of the mine area. The general direction of stream flow is easterly to the confluence with
the Arkansas River, also in Las Animas County. The principal tributary of the Purgatoire
River which drains in the vicinity of the mine permit azea is Apache Canyon. Apache
Canyon drains a watershed of approximately 7,264 acres. Cover in the canyon is primarily
woodland with a herbaceous valley bottom. Primary land use is grazing and wildlife habitat.
Surface mine features within the Apache Canyon (on the left fork) include two ventilation
shafts for the now inactive New Elk mine. These shafts have been transferred to the Golden
Eagle mine permit and the Golden Eagle mine assumed the reclamation liability for the
facilities. Portions of Apache Canyon have been under mined (by room and pillar mining).
Apache Canyon dischazges into the Purgatoire River above the Golden Eagle mine reclaimed
area. Apache Canyon was determined not to meet alluvial valley floor criteria.
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The geologic setting is an important factor when analyzing hydrology of an area.
Stratigraphy in the region of the mine ranges in age from Pre-Cambrian to Quaternary.
However, only portions of the Raton Formation (see Figure L1-1) and recent alluvial
deposits are exposed in the azea of the mine. Most of the formation consists of very fine to
medium grained sandstone interbedded with siltstone and shale. Coal that was mined at the
New Elk is located neaz the middle of the Raton Formation. The outcrop of the formation in
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