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trucks. To obtain this low variability water applicationwould have had to be uniform both <br />spatially and temporally. In other words the identical amount of water would have had to been <br />applied across the entire stockpile surface the entire time soil was being added to the stockpile. <br />Even if the drivers of the large watering trucks could actually spread water over the entire <br />surface of the stockpileit isalmost inconceivable that water applications were identical <br />throughout the life of the stockpile. In other words water applications would have been required <br />to be identical in both the winter in the summer. This scenario is very unlikely. <br />Although the other two large soil stockpiles had variances slightly greater than both Lift B and <br />the acceptable laboratory error the standard deviation were all still less than two times the <br />acceptable laboratory error threshold. For soils taken from across a landscape this is still an <br />extremely low variability. It should be noted that the low variability was anticipated due to the <br />soil salvage, soil handling and stockpiling techniques used at the New Horizon Mine.At the <br />New Horizon Mine the soil is salvaged by windrowing the topsoil and then it is placed into haul <br />trucks using truck and shovel operation, once in the trucks it is transported to the stockpiles <br />where it is dumped and then spread using dozers. This method of soil salvagecreates a very <br />homogenous soil stockpile as can be observed in the soil analysis <br />The differences in soil salinity concentration between the soil stockpiles, especially the Mixed <br />Topsoil and either Lift A or Lift B stockpiles, is likely dues to natural differences in the site soils. <br />Based on soil mapping that has been performed on the Morgan Property it is likely that the <br />slightly greater soil salinity concentration in the Mixed Topsoil pile is due to the original soil <br />properties and not mixing of the Lift A and Lift Bmaterial. All of the various professionals who <br />mapped the soils on the Eastern portion of the Morgan Property, area where the Mixed A and B <br />stockpiled material originated concluded that the soils there are different from those on the <br />remainder of the property. The amount of time that the stockpiles have been sitting in the area is <br />also another contributing factor. The Mixed Topsoil stockpile is the oldest stockpile on the site; <br />therefore it has had the longest time to reach an equilibrium state. <br />The increase in soil salinity compared to background concentrations and differences in soil <br />salinity between the Lift A and Lift B stockpiles compared to the Mixed A and B stockpile are <br />likely due to natural conditions and time differences and arenot a result ofsoil handling <br />practices. <br />EAYield <br />The decrease in plant productivity due to salt accumulation is well researched and understood <br />(Maas and Hoffman, 1977; Ayers and Westcot, 1985; and Hanson et al., 1999). Soilsalinity at <br />high enough levels produces an osmotic potential that aplant must overcome to extract water <br />from the soil. In some situations the soil may appear “moist” however due to increased soil <br />salinity the plant cannot extract enough water to survive.What is typically overlooked in this <br />research is how the plants respond to salinity outside of laboratory settings. <br />Plants respond to average root zone soil salinity not to any individual soil layer. A newly planted <br />crop is much more sensitive to elevated soil salinity in the surface since that is where the <br />majority, if not all, of the newly germinating plant roots are located. Once the plant matures it <br />then responds to soil salinity throughout the entire rooting depth. Most plants do not have a <br />10 <br />{00136879.1 } <br />