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West Elk Mine 2004 Annual Hydrology Report <br />11 <br />• 3.1.3.4 Upper and Lower Minnesota Creek <br />Minnesota Creek is the major stream that drains the southern Project azea. There are two <br />monitoring stations in Minnesota Creek, Upper Minnesota located upstream of Dry Fork and <br />Lower Minnesota Creek located downstream of Dry Fork. The Upper Minnesota Creek monitoring <br />station was established by the USFS in 1977 to collect baseline data for the un-mined SOD coal <br />lease area and to support of the Minnesota Creek Augmentation Plan. These two stations monitor <br />the hydrologic effects of mining the SE mine panel area (Map 2). <br />3.2 Spring and Seep Monitoring <br />Currently, there are 24 springs and seeps in the West Elk Mine hydrology monitoring program. <br />The spring and seep monitoring program for WY 2004 remains the same as in WY 2003 and is <br />divided into four general hydrologic categories for discussion purposes: <br />• Springs and seeps in [he North Fork drainage basin issuing from the strata above the F- <br />Coal Seam. <br />• Springs and seeps in the North Fork drainage basin issuing from in or below the F-Coal <br />Seam. <br />• Springs and seeps in the Jumbo Mountain area in the North Fork drainage issuing from <br />• strata above the B-Coal Seam. <br />• Springs and seeps in the Dry Fork drainage issuing from strata above the E-Coal Seam. <br />The locations of the spring and seep monitoring stations are shown on Map 2. The following <br />discussion of monitored springs is presented according to the general hydrologic categories <br />described above and is presented from upstream to downstream relative to the Project. A summary <br />of the spring and seep monitoring program is presented in Table 3 and a discussion of WY2004 <br />hydrologic data is present in Section 5.2 of this report. <br />L~ <br />August zoos HydroGeo, Inc. <br />