Laserfiche WebLink
Company. The second pipeline carried water from the Steven's Gulch Well Field to the site West Mine <br />portal facility. <br />There are many springs and numerous ponds within the permit and hydrologically adjacent area of the <br />Bowie No. 1 Mine. It appears that most of these springs and ponds are intermittent and depend upon <br />seasonal precipitation and long -term weather patterns. The source of most of the springs appears to be <br />related to landslide complexes, faults and fractures, areas of colluvium/ alluvium where ground water <br />has accumulated, or the discharge points at the contact of the Rollins sandstone with the lenticular <br />sandstones of the Mesaverde Formation. <br />Water Rights and Replacement - Rules 2.04.7(3), 2.05.6(3)(ii), 2.07.6(2 )(c), 4.05.15 <br />Water rights and associated mitigation plans are found in Section 2.04.7 and Section 2.05.6 in Volume <br />1. Detailed tabulations and discussions of water rights and mitigation plans are documented in Volumes <br />5 and 5A. <br />The Bowie No. 1 Mine could potentially damage water rights in three ways. Water for use within the <br />mine is derived from an alluvial well field in Steven's Gulch. Drawdown of this alluvium could affect <br />flows in Steven's Gulch and in the North Fork of the Gunnison. Over a hundred springs and spring -fed <br />or runoff -fed stockponds cover the permit area, and many are found in the affected area. Subsidence <br />could affect the structural integrity of these ponds or interrupt flow to springs. Lastly, mine inflows <br />from streams along fractures could diminish adjacent surface water flows. <br />During the permit renewal process of 1993, it had been noted that the Bowie No. 1 Mine was consuming <br />approximately 30,000 gpd (as proposed in their original permit application) for use at the mine. In early <br />1986, they consumed 8,700 gpd. Water consumption decreased when the mining operations were <br />temporarily halted. Now that mining and loadout operations have ceased, there is no water consumption <br />from the well field. The water supply was drawn from a well field which taps the alluvium of Steven's <br />Gulch. The applicant has obtained an approved augmentation plan through Division 4 Water Court to <br />replace water removed from Steven's Gulch. The plan uses releases from East Beckwith No. 1 <br />Reservoir, located in the Anthracite drainage, to compensate for any injury to other vested water rights <br />or, for this purpose, the North Fork alluvium. The Bowie No. 1 Mine, through an agreement with Pitkin <br />Mesa Pipeline Company, obtained additional water for mine consumption. This water was also drawn <br />from the Steven's Gulch alluvium, but under the pipeline company's water right. <br />BRL proposes to replace the water supply of any legitimate water user if impacted by the mine until <br />such time as repairs are instituted. The application includes specific sources of water owned by Bowie <br />Resources, LLC that will be called upon. A subsidence repair plan for springs, ponds, streams, and <br />other resources is included in Subsidence Volume 3. <br />Topsoil - Rules 2.04.9, 2.05.3(5 ), 2.05.4 (2)(d), 4.06 <br />Information pertaining to soil resources and their inventory is presented in Section 2.04 of Volume 1 and <br />in the Soils Appendix of Volume 9. Information pertaining to topsoil handling and redistribution is in <br />Section 2.05 of Volume 1. <br />Disturbance at the Bowie No. 1 Mine commenced in late 1975 but has presently ceased due to the <br />cessation of mining. The initial development work of the Bowie No. 1 East Mine benches and the <br />storage and loadout areas occurred from October 1975 to mid -1976, prior to the enactment of the <br />Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Act of 1976 and its topsoil salvaging requirements. Due to the steep <br />Page 12 of 42 <br />