Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Possible Land Use Plan Amendments for Allocation of Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources on Lands Administered by the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Volume 2: Chapters 4 and 5

摘要

This chapter of the PEIS contains a summary of information on current and emerging oil shale technologies and their potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Some of the information on the environmental consequences of oil shale development in this chapter is based on past oil shale development efforts. For the purposes of analysis, in the absence of more specific information on the oil shale technologies to be implemented in the future and the environmental consequences of implementing those technologies, information derived from other types of mineral development (oil and gas, underground and surface mining of coal) was used in preparing this chapter. The BLM has taken this approach because it anticipates, to the best of its knowledge, that the surface-disturbing activities involved with these other types of mineral development are comparable to those that may result from oil shale and tar sands development. Also included in this chapter is a brief description of mitigation measures that the BLM may consider for use if warranted by the results of NEPA analysis undertaken prior to issuance of site-specific oil shale commercial leases and/or approval of detailed plans of development. Use of the mitigation measures will be evaluated at that time. Some sections of this chapter are organized on the basis of potential impacts of specific technologies or practices involved in oil shale development, while other sections focus on the particular resource(s) impacted. For example, Sections 4.7 Noise Resources, 4.14 Hazardous Materials and Waste Management, and 4.15 Health and Safety are organized by technology or project activity, because impacts within these disciplines are distinguished on the basis of these project-specific elements. Alternately, Sections 4.4 Paleontological Resources, 4.5 Water Resources, 4.8 Ecological Resources, and 4.10 Cultural Resources are organized by type of impact on the particular resource, such as land disturbance, water use, or soil contamination, because focus on impacts on the particular resource provides more information in these instances, than emphasis on specific technologies or practices (i.e., the types of impacts by technology are consistent, and the magnitude of impacts would vary on the basis of site-specific considerations).