1988-06-17_REPORT - C1981012 (2)

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temperature and higher average precipitation. The Golden Eagle and New Elk precipitation records are presented in Table 3 of Appendix 1 . Precipitation is recorded at each mine with continuous recorders . Annual precipitation could not be calculated because the recorder at the New Elk Mine was damaged during road construction and the Golden Eagle recorder was not maintained during mine start-up. Following repair, the New Elk recorder was moved from the surface facilities area to the embankment of the refuse disposal pond. Soils are generally shallow and coarse-grained. Derivation is from the underlying sandstones and shales. Bedrock exposures are common and scattered throughout the area . The valley bottoms are characterized by alluvial and colluvial deposits which are also coarse- grained and deeper than soils of the mountain slopes. Vegetation varies from riparian and blue grama complexes in the valley bottoms to pinyon-juniper, oak brush, and pine cover on the side slopes. Vegetation cover ranges from 100% in the valley bottoms to near 0% on the steeper side slope rock outcrop areas. 1 .2 Sampling Station Descriptions A monthly sampling program has been conducted since February 1984 to assess the affect of mining operations on surface and ground water quality and quantity. Tables 1 and 2 are a summary of the current water monitoring program. This program has undergone several revisions over the last four years. These revisions have resulted from data review by the Division and WFC. Sampling emphasis has been placed on some of the stations because of increased mine operations on the surface (as discussed in the Annual Report of 1984) . Following are descriptions of the current sampling locations. Station locations are shown on Figure 1 . PRS-1 Located on the Middle Fork of the Purgatoire River above the surface facilities of the New Elk Mine. This station was selected to assess stream quality and flow above mining 2