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The permittee has demonstrated that a large portion of the alluvial valley floor meets the requirement <br />for a "grandfathering" exemption. The Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act of 1979 <br />allows an exemption from interrupting, precluding, or discontinuing farming and from effects on the <br />quantity and quality of water supplying the alluvial valley floor, if, in the year preceding August 3, <br />1977, the surface coal mining operations either produced coal in commercial quantities and were <br />located within or adjacent to an alluvial valley floor, or had obtained permit approval to conduct <br />surface coal mining operations within an alluvial valley floor. <br />The geographic extent of the exemption is limited to the actual extent of mine workings as of August <br />3, 1977, and adjacent lands for which there existed (at that time) substantial demonstrable financial or <br />regulatory commitment to mine in the future, as required by Rule 2.06.8(5)(a)(i)(B) in the Regulations <br />of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board for Coal Mining. <br />The permittee provided copies of permits for the Roadside and Cameo Mines, which were obtained in <br />December 1976 and January 1977. Therefore, those lands permitted are eligible for the "grandfather" <br />exemption. These lands include those portions of the permit area within Sections 27, 28, 33 and 34, <br />T10S, R98W. This area includes the entire affected alluvial valley floor, with the exception of that <br />portion in Section 26. However, that portion of Section 26 within the permit area as noted in Exhibit <br />33 was disturbed as part of construction of the unit train loadout prior to August 3, 1977, and therefore <br />is eligible for the "grandfathering" exemption. <br />Alluvial Valley Floor - Findings (Facilities Area) <br />Those portions of the permit area within Sections 26, 27, 28, 33 and 34 are exempt from the <br />requirements that prevent an operation from interrupting, discontinuing, or precluding farming, and <br />from affecting the quantity and quality of water supplying the alluvial valley floor (4.24.3(4)). <br />However, this area is not exempt from the requirements for restoring the essential hydrologic functions <br />of the alluvial valley floor, which will be discussed below, in Item 3. <br />All of the non-exempt alluvial valley floor is located outside the permit area within Section 26 and 27. <br />No portion of the non-exempt alluvial valley floor is presently disturbed by the mining operation. <br />A small portion of this area is indicated as being historically flood irrigated on Exhibit 33. There <br />are no plans to disturb any additional land on the alluvial valley floor. Therefore, the proposed <br />coal mining operation will not interrupt, discontinue, or preclude farming on the alluvial valley <br />floor (4.24.3(1)). <br />As previously discussed, a portion of the non-exempt alluvial valley floor was historically flood <br />irrigated. In addition, a portion is subirrigated. The remaining area is potentially flood irrigable. <br />Surface waters which could be and were used to irrigate the non-exempted alluvial valley floor <br />would be diverted from the Highline Canal. Water in the Highline Canal is diverted from the <br />Colorado River approximately one mile upstream of the disturbance. The Highline Canal will <br />not be affected by subsidence or by mine discharges. Therefore, the quantity and quality of <br />surface water which supplies the AVF would not be affected by the proposed operations <br />(4.24.3(3)). <br />Discharge from the Roadside and Cameo Mines will have a minor salt loading effect on the <br />Colorado River. The affect on the water quality from this discharge will be to increase the <br />Permit Revision No. 4 52 February 3, 2009