Laserfiche WebLink
Big Dry Creek cuts through the southeastern corner of this property and a point of <br />• diversion for Lupton Bottom Ditch diverts from Big Dry Creek on the Morton Property. <br />As Big Dry Creek continues downstream off of the Morton property it intersects with the <br />South Platte to the east of Morton Lakes. There appears to be an unnamed lateral that <br />diverts from the Lupton Bottom Ditch along the north side of the property. The Brighton <br />Ditch is not on this property but parallels it west of the site. The Fulton Ditch is not <br />shown on this map but is a little over 2 miles east of this site. <br />Evaporative losses depend on the exposed surface area, which will vary throughout <br />the life of the mining operation. The estimated maximum area of exposed water surface <br />over the life of the mine will be 17 acres. <br />The gross annual evaporation for the site is 43 inches or 3.6 feet, which was taken <br />from the NOAA Technical Report NWS 33, Evaporation Atlas for the Conti ous 48 <br />United States. Monthly evaporation percentages, as suggested by the SEO were used to <br />calculate monthly evaporation. The Climatology of the United State No. 81 provided the <br />estimated annual precipitation. The annual mean precipitation is 13.81 inches which was <br />0 taken from the Brighton weather stations. <br />The effective precipitation is computed to determine the net evaporation from the <br />exposed groundwater. Effective precipitation is calculated as 70% of the average annual <br />precipitation and is 0.81 feet for Morton Lakes. The net evaporation is calculated by <br />subtracting the effective precipitation from the gross evaporation. The net annual <br />evaporation is approximately 2.78 feet, thus the resulting net annual evaporation <br />consumptive use during the mining operation is 47.22 acre-feet. The other stages of this <br />mining site will be will be lined prior to mining and reclamation and will not require <br />augmentation of evaporative losses. <br />The water retained in the mined material is considered a consumptive use. The <br />anticipated amount of material that will be mined each year will range from 50,000 to <br />2,000,000 tons, as they are ramping up and down production. Assuming 4% moisture <br />• <br />5