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Hydrology & Water Use <br />The Little Snake River is a perennial stream that supplies water for irrigation and recreation in the <br />region. The proposed exploration permit area is south of the Little Snake River and the closest proposed <br />hole (Hole 10) is over a 1/4 mile away from the Little Snake River. The exploration area is dissected by <br />numerous creeks that drain into the Little Snake River. The most significant creeks include Timberlake <br />and Fourmile. Pole Gulch also occurs but is less significant. These streams are intermittent and flow <br />primarily during the spring snowmelt and occasionally after a significant rainstorm. Linc Energy will take <br />every precaution to contain drilling fluids at the site from entering any drainage in the proposed <br />exploration permit area. A source of water for drilling will be approved prior to project startup. <br />Geology <br />The Little Snake River exploration permit area resides in the Sand Wash Basin, a basin principally <br />restricted to northwest Colorado. A west to east trending structural high referred to as the Cherokee <br />Ridge occurs along the Wyoming and Colorado border and separates the Sand Wash Basin on the south <br />from the Washakie Basin in Wyoming to the north. <br />The regional stratigraphy of the area consists of Tertiary and Cretaceous units containing from bottom <br />to top as the Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation, the Paleocene Fort Union Formation and the Eocene <br />Wasatch Formation. The surface consists mainly of the Wasatch Formation with minor exposures of the <br />Fort Union in the northernmost part of the exploration application area. These Tertiary formations are <br />locally overlain by modern Quaternary alluvium deposits confined to drainages of Little Snake, <br />Timberlake Creek and Fourmile Creek. These modern alluvium deposits consist of the Piney Creek <br />Alluvium and younger deposits. <br />Within the Little Snake River area the Wasatch Formation ranges in thickness from 900 to 3,000 feet and <br />averages about 1,500 feet thick. It consists of claystone, shale and sandstone. The contact with the <br />underlying Fort Union Formation is believed to be unconformable. <br />The Fort Union Formation unconformably overlies the Lance Formation and ranges about 300 to 3,000 <br />feet thick averaging 1,300 feet thick. The Fort Union Formation contains relatively thick coal seams <br />which are of interest to Linc Energy for potential UCG applications. The Fort Union Formation consists <br />of shale, mudstone, siltstone, sandstone and coal. The coal is considered subbituminous. Oil and gas <br />logs within the area of interest were used to located and correlate individual coal seams. <br />The structure is relatively gentle with a southwestward dip ranging from about 1 to 5 degrees. No major <br />faults were identified in the exploration area being considered. However, immediately south, faulting <br />has been identified as well as the occurrence of Upper Tertiary intrusive intermediate to felsic dikes. <br />Wildlife and Vegetation <br />The area has diverse fauna and flora. A Threatened and Endangered third party report will be provided <br />to the Division. This survey is planned to be completed this Fall. A cultural study will also be conducted <br />in the vicinity of the proposed drill sites. <br />