9606

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9606
• Author: BBC Research and Consulting.
• Title: Yampa River Basin Water Needs Study.
• USFW Year: 1996.
• USFW - Doc Type: Denver, CO.
• Copyright Material: NO

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The firm prepared a social impact analysis for the Arco Coal Company
related to a proposed mine in Western Colorado. Effects upon families, such
as AFDC, Food Stamps, social service agency support, and psychiatric
requirements were analyzed. Statistical trends in police department
activities, school dropouts, transience and other measures of social instability
were examined.
BBC led the Cumulative Environmental Evaluation (CEE) of gold and silver
surface mining in the Black Hills for the South Dakota Department of Water
and Natural Resources. The CEE developed alternative mining development
scenarios, examined existing physical and socioeconomic conditions,
evaluated cumulative physical and socioeconomic impacts and identified
and evaluated policy alternatives. A particularly important task of the CEE
was the analysis of large-scale surface ,,,;n;ng impacts on quality of life in the
Black Hills and in the State of South Dakota. The results of this year and a
half study will guide state policy on future permitting of surface mines.
In a two-year effort, BBC examined the impacts of power plant development
at 12 locations across the United States. This study, commissioned by the
Electric Power Research Institute and performed with the Denver Research
Institute, represents the first comprehensive, retrospective analysis of
socioeconomic impacts. The results of this work significantly improved the
approach to socioeconomic impact assessments and challenged many of the
general assumptions about the impact of industrial development on local
economic activity. The nationwide study included an evaluation of
socioeconomic impact analysis modeling techniques which reviewed all
methodologies and procedures currently used in impact assessment.
BBC completed an economic impact assessment of potential changes in
Grand Junction area air quality standards. Two separate standards were
under scrutiny: the likely PM-10 Standard and the possible redesignation of
the Colorado National Monument to a Class I area. Since the imposition of
these standards could, under extreme circumstances, cause a curtailment of
certain industrial activity, BBC was retained to estimate the economic,
demographic and financial impacts of such actions.
' For the National Park Service, BBC has examined growth prospects and
prepared socioeconomic forecasts fora six county area encompassing
northwestern Colorado and eastern Utah. Scenarios assuming various levels
of oil shale development were developed. Population growth, energy-related
and industrial development, service demands, electricity generation, gasoline
use, housing unit development and other construction activity were estimated
as a means of quantifying total land development by type of use. These
forecasts were the major input to secondary source emissions estimates for
an Air Quality Assessment of the Colorado National Monument and
Dinosaur National Park.
• In 1988, BBC prepared an economic impact analysis of alternative
transportation and disposal methods of low level nuclear waste for the
DOE's UMTRA Program. Effects on property values and retail sales were
' prominent concerns in this controversial assignment in Mesa County,
Colorado.
BBC Research & Consulting
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