low probability of a very small impact, while e values below 0.50 but above 

 0.30 would tend to delineate the greater likelihood of some adverse but 

 largely mild environmental effect. 



With reference to the German Gulch equitability calculations, both the 

 species and the varietal equitabilities in Table 15 were observed to lie in 

 the 0.60 to 0.80 range for all three of the German Gulch stations, and these 

 observations point to a good environmental health with the absence of any 

 significant pollutive stress. Equitabilities were seen to decline to a small 

 extent to the lower gulch site in parallel with this station's reduced 

 Shannon-Wiener diversities, and this downstream drop in diversity was inter- 

 preted to illustrate the development of a very mild perturbation in the lower 

 reach of the gulch. But the fact that the bottom station's periphyton equit- 

 ability was greater than 0.60 acts to confirm the mildness of the potential 

 effect, if such an effect actually exists. 



Based on these diversity and equitability index assessments, German Gulch 

 appears to be in an excellent to good environmental and biological condition 

 at the present time. Therefore, the prediction of the absence of any marked 

 pollutive inputs into the waters of the gulch would seem to be a valid 

 judgment that can now be put forth for the project's waterway. 



•23- 



