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6.Other Statutory Considerations _ Geology, Soils, And Seismicity Impact 6.6: The slope instability hazards would remain specific to the proposed RMC project site and be localized with the active mining area and therefore would not contribute to a region-wide cumulative slope instability condition.This would be a less-than-significant impact. The Proposed would result in potential geologic hazard impacts related to slope instability and seismic hazards. Similar to the other proposed and existing mining projects,the slope instability hazards would remain specific to the proposed RMC project site and be localized with the active mining area and therefore would not contribute to a region-wide cumulative slope instability condition, if one did exist. The project would attract additional workers to the mine and could place additional people in harms way during an earthquake. The project,therefore, could be responsible for contributing to a cumulative seismic risk impact as other proposed and existing projects in the region attract workers into the area. However, the number of workers added to a region from the proposed RMC project and other mining projects in this undeveloped area is negligible when considering the overall population that would be exposed to potential harm from a large regional earthquake. Because of this,the project's contribution is not cumulatively considerable and the cumulative impact is less than significant. _ Mitigation: No mitigation is required. _ Hydrology and Water Quality Impact 6.7: With mitigation,the project would not contribute to cumulative,regional adverse impacts on the lower Tulare Formation aquifer. Cumulative impacts would be potentially significant. Groundwater Consumption The cumulative impact analysis for hydrology and water quality considers the region surrounding the project site(including the city of Tracy)that currently or in the future,may extract groundwater from the extensive confined groundwater aquifer in the lower Tulare Formation(see Hydrology and Water Quality, Section 4.8). Compared to the groundwater in the shallow, unconfined aquifers and the semi-confined aquifers within the upper Tulare Formation, the lower Tulare Formation provides groundwater at a substantially greater quantity and with higher quality. The lower Tulare Formation provides groundwater supply for industrial uses(namely active mining operations)near the project area and municipal and industrial uses within and surrounding the city of Tracy. This analysis assumes that existing industrial operations and municipal groundwater demands would remain essentially the same, while proposed projects within the region would pump groundwater either as their primary supply or to supplement a surface water supply. As mining operations typically demand a substantial water supply for processing, dust suppression, landscaping, and domestic use,the use of groundwater for the project, in combination with other mining projects in the area, could cumulatively affect groundwater supply within the lower Tulare Formation. The cumulative affect would likely be RMC Pacific Vernalis Quarry Mining and Reclamation Project 6-12 ESA 1203015 Draft Environmental Impact Report May 20D6