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e . Description of recharge, storage and discharge <br /> characteristics of local aquifers <br /> Groundwater recharge and discharge relation- <br /> ships in Coal Basin as it is related to the mine complex is <br /> controlled by the geologic structure . Generally; water <br /> migrates from the sandstone outcrop downdip towards the west <br /> beneath Huntsmans Ridge and into the deep aquifers of the <br /> Piceance Basin . The Coal Basin mines are located in the <br /> Mesaverde Sandstone aquifer recharge zone . Water infil- <br /> trates directly at the crop or through faults, joints , or <br /> fractures and migrates either vertically through the lith- <br /> ologic units or along the dip or fracture trends . <br /> According to the report by Willard Owens <br /> (Appendix- III-E-1) the sandstone units are unsaturated to a <br /> • depth of 8 , 000 feet thus inferring that if the aquifers are <br /> saturated to any degree that the units are under unconfined <br /> aquifer conditions within the permit area . Since opening <br /> the mines in 1956 , the rate of pumping from year to year has <br /> been directly related to the depth of snow and rate of snow <br /> melt runoff in the basin. Since the mine entrances are at <br /> the coal outcrop and extend under 2, 000 to 3000 feet of <br /> cover, the amount of pumped water is either directly from <br /> aquifer storage or from infiltrating surface water . The <br /> only water that can be pumped from the mines is located <br /> between the coal crop line and the working face, a distance <br /> less than 8 , 000 horizontal feet . The net impact of mine <br /> • dewaterirg on the total recharge area is insignificant <br /> 11 <br /> it <br />