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C-1981-022 <br />RN-05 Findings <br />February 2009 <br />submitted an application for permit renewal, which was received by the Division on March 20, 2008. <br />On March 24, 2008, the Division determined the application to be Complete for purposes of filing, <br />and mailed Completeness letters to various federal, state and local agencies. The public notice <br />announcing the completeness of the permit renewal application was published in the Delta County <br />Independent for four consecutive weeks beginning March 26 and ending April 16, 2008. No <br />comments were received by the Division concerning the renewal. The Applicant Violator System <br />(AVS) was queried for any non-compliance issues relating to OMLLC. On February 9, 2009, the <br />AVS gave an "issue" recommendation. <br />Description of the Environment <br />The surface lands within the permit area include 5,551 acres ofprivately-owned land and 7,878 acres <br />of federally owned lands (USFS and BLM). The coal reserve owners include Oxbow Mining, LLC, <br />other private entities and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. <br />Surface facilities are located in the Elk Creek, Bear Creek, Hubbard Creek and Sanborn Creek <br />drainages on the north side of the North Fork of the Gunnison River. Mining areas include workings <br />under the Hubbard, Elk, Bear Creek and Coal Gulch drainages. Proposed workings in the Sanborn <br />Creek East Tract have undermined A, B, C and Hoopla Gulches, Bardine Canyon, Hawk's Nest <br />Creek and an unnamed tributary of Thompson Creek. Hubbard Creek is a perennial tributary of the <br />North Fork and provides both domestic and agricultural supplies of water. Bear Creek, Elk Creek <br />and Sanborn Creek are intermittent streams. Coal Gulch, the unnamed drainage, A, B and C <br />Gulches, Hawk's Nest Creek, Hoopla Gulch, Bardine Canyon and Thompson Creek are all ephemeral <br />drainages that flow to the North Fork. <br />The North Fork River Basin contains a developed water supply providing agricultural water to the <br />fruit-growing region of the North Fork Valley. The North Fork River enters the main stem of the <br />Gunnison River approximately 30 miles southwest of the Somerset Mine. The drainage basin of the <br />North Fork is mountainous, bounded to the west by the Raggeds, the Ruby Range, to the east by the <br />Huntsman Ridge, to the South by the West Elk Mountains, and to the North by Grand Mesa. <br />Elevations in the basin range from 13,058 feet atop Mt. Owen in the Ruby Range, to 5,100 feet at the <br />confluence of the North Fork with the Gunnison River. The town of Somerset, Colorado, <br />immediately adjacent to the Somerset Mine site, is at an elevation of 6,045 feet. <br />Ground reconnaissance during 1978, 1979 and 1980 identified Elk No. 1 Spring as the only location <br />with ground water surfacing within the original Somerset permit area, and this had a flow rate of less <br />than one gallon per minute. It is concluded that there is no large ground water reservoir in the area. <br />Western Slope Carbon identified and monitored 11 springs within or adjacent to the Sanborn East <br />Tract. Monitoring records are available from 1983 through 1987. Somerset Mining Company, now <br />Oxbow Mining, LLC, resumed monitoring these springs in July 1992. Springs 1 through 6 are <br />located along the north boundary of the Sanborn East Tract in the northern portion of Section 2. <br />Springs 7 through 11 are located along the southern boundary of the new tract. The locations of the