Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
Hydrologic Setting
The hydrologic setting includes the following components that are described in more detail
in the following sections:
• Regional Hydrologic Setting
• San Mateo Creek
Regional Hydrologic Setting
The main Roca Honda site is located within two subwatersheds: Upper San Mateo Creek, HUC
130202070301 (most of the site) and San Lucas Canyon, HUC 130202050101 (northern portion
of the site and effluent disposal pipeline and disposal area). See figure 33. The Upper San Mateo
Creek subwatershed drains an area of 57.8 square miles and contains one stream, San Mateo
Creek, five springs, numerous stock ponds and one reservoir. According to RHR, there are no
riparian or wetland areas as defined by the Clean Water Act Section 404 in the Roca Honda
permit area. The San Lucas Canyon subwatershed drains an area of 47.8 square miles and
contains a small section of the permit area consisting of the northern portion of Sections 9 and 10
of the permit area where there are no planned surface facilities. The surface facilities in Sections 9
and 10 nearest to the subwatershed boundary include two vent shafts. These facilities do not come
close to any watercourses within the San Lucas Canyon subwatershed.
The effluent disposal pipeline and disposal area are also within this subwatershed. The effluent
pipeline would parallel a watercourse and discharges to a reservoir located within the San Lucas
Canyon subwatershed. A brief description of the subwatershed is found subsequently in this
section, although comprehensive data and a detailed description of this subwatershed and its
watercourses are not included in this section as minimal disturbance is expected to occur in these
areas.
The Upper San Mateo subwatershed is part of the Rio Grande drainage basin which drains south
into San Mateo Creek. San Mateo Creek is a tributary of the Rio San José. The Rio San José joins
the Rio Puerco west of the city of Los Lunas, and the Rio Puerco confluences with the Rio
Grande near the community of Bernardo, south of the city of Belen. The Upper San Mateo
subwatershed is bordered to the west by the Middle San Mateo Creek subwatershed and on the
north by the San Lucas Canyon subwatershed. The San Lucas Canyon subwatershed drains north
into the Arroyo Chico, a tributary of the northern branch of the Rio Puerco. The Arroyo del
Puerto subwatershed lies north of the Middle San Mateo Creek subwatershed.
Neither San Mateo Creek nor the Rio San José contains streams with protected status; they are
not designated as wild rivers (under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, 16 U.S.C. 1271 et seq) or
Outstanding National Resource Water (under NMAC 20.6.4). The watershed does not have
stream segments that have been listed as impaired in the “2012-2014 State of New Mexico Clean
Water Act §303(d)/§305(b) Integrated Report, U.S. EPA–Approved May 8, 2012” (NMED,
2012). The streams in the watershed were scheduled for assessment by the NMED in 2011
(NMED, 2012), but as of December 2012 the streams are not shown as having been assessed in
the NMED Surface Water Quality Bureau “SWQB Mapper”
(http://gis.nmenv.state.nm.us/SWQB/). For regulatory purposes the stream in the watershed are
considered perennial, as New Mexico does not recognize ephemeral streams unless a use
attainability analysis (UAA) for the stream has been completed. The WQCC and EPA must
112 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest