2002-06-05_PERMIT FILE - M2002004 (2)

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' RED ROCK PLANT & QUARRY CLASS III CULTURAL RESOURCE INVENTORY INTRODUCTION GCC Rio Grande; Inc. contracted Greystone Environmental Consultants (Greystone) to complete an intensive cultural resource survey for the proposed Red Rock Plant and Quarry site, a rail spur, and a borrow area. The plant and quarry area located about five miles south of Pueblo, Colorado, will include a cement plant, a rail corridor, a fill area north of the plant, limestone quarries up to year five of the proposed quarry plan, and small ditches to divert and control runoff. The survey area is located in Pueblo County in T22S, R64W, Sections 18 and 19 and in ' T22S, R65W, Sections 12., 13, and 24 and can be found.on the Southwest Pueblo, Southeast Pueblo, Goat Butte, and Verde School USGS quadrangle topographic maps (Figure 1). The land is owned by the State of Colorado and leased by GCC Rio Grande, Inc. In addition to the project area, the project area location map shows the permit area and the property area, both of which are more extensive than the current project area. The permit area encompasses the extent of exploitable limestone deposits and areas of reasonably anticipated activities to . exploit the ' resource. The property area is the full extent of State lease and fee surface areas held by GCC Rio Grande. A Class III pedestrian survey was conducted in the area of potential effect (APE) of the construction and quarry activities. The pedestrian survey encompassed 564 acres. The survey was conducted under the State of Colorado Archaeological permit #2001-35. The pedestrian ' survey was conducted. by Cherie K. Walth, Michael Landem, and Robert Rowe of Greystone on December 4 and 5, 2001, and on February 15, 2002. Carl Spath served as Principle Investigator. .' AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT URS (Mutaw 2002), in an earlier report for portions of this project, describes the environmental and cultural context for the project area and that description is briefly summarized here. The reader is directed to that report for a more detailed description of the area. . ¦ The survey area is on gently sloping plains cut by occasional ephemeral drainages with a small portion of the survey area along cliffs overlooking Greenhorn Creek where it joins the St. Charles River and floodplain. The project area is in the Great Plains Physiographic Province (Zier and Kalasz 1999). The St. Charles River crosses the property at the north end. Elevations in the surveyed area range from 4,900 feet above sea level at the north end of the proposed railroad spur to 5,100 feet at the southwest end of the five-year quarry area. The underlying bedrock in the project area is the Niobrara Formation, which consists of ' calcareous shale and limestone. The borrow area and the west end of the railroad spur contain Pleistocene gravels and alluvium (Tweto 1979). The soils are Manvel silt loam in most of the 1180-Red Rock Class III CR Inventory(Apr.17.02) 1