1986-03-03_REPORT - C1981013 (2)

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STIPULATION 10, NEW ELK; STIPULATION 7, GOLDEN EAGLE Water User Survey t INTRODUCTION Wyoming Fuel Company (WFC) completed a water user survey on May 9th and loth, 1984. The area surveyed included one-mile surrounding the New Elk and Golden Eagle Permit Boundaries. The purpose of this survey was to supplement the survey previously completed by CF&I and assess the potential effects of mining on the quality and quanity of water in these wells. Residents within the area of study were interviewed to determine if they had wells for their domestic water supply or agricultural water supply. If a resident was not home neighbors were questioned as to knowledge of wells. Windmills and stock ponds were also inventoried during this survey. Information on wells, windmills and stock ponds is provided in Tables 1-3. Their locations are plotted on Figure 1. City water is the primary source of water for domestic use east of the North Fork of the Purgatoire River. Water is piped in a southeasterly direction along the North Fork via an adequate and then east on the north side of Highway 12. With the exception of two residents everyone contacted uses city water. These exceptions are wells 15 and 16. City water is not available to the west of the North Fork. These residents rely on wells. DISCUSSION The Mined Land Reclamation staff has stipulated that WFC identify those wells that might be affected (quantity and quality) by mining opera- tions and predict the significance of these affects. A discussion is appropriate on wells inventoried prior to making this assessment. The well inventory suggests there are two basic sources of well water. The first system consists of an alluvial aquifer or springs along the Middle Fork of the Purgatoire River. The second system is localized subsurface water in the highlands south of the Middle Fork of the Purgatoire -1-