Laserfiche WebLink
<br />002430 <br /> <br />Transpartatian Alternati,ves <br /> <br />Caal and its products wil I be transparted fram the basin in either natu- <br />ral ar canverted form. Uncanverted caal can be transported by slurry pipe- <br />lines, unit trains, ar trucks. Alternatively, the coal may be canverted in <br />the basin to' electrical power, to a liquid praduct (oil ar methanol), or to <br />gaseous products (high and low Btu gases), Existing transport facilities <br />within the Yampa River basin may have to be enlarged ,to handle the prajected <br />increase in coal mining, The existing pipeline, rail system, and pawer- <br />transmissian systems maynat be adequate. Furthermore, new systems may have <br />to' be developed to' transport new products, Any prapasal developed far trans- <br />porting coal needs to' cansider the mode of transpart, the water-resaurce re- <br />quirements, the enviranmental impacts, and the tatal caSt, <br /> <br />Coal nat canverted to' either electricity or gas will be assumed to be <br />shipped out af the basin by either slurry pipelines or unit trains. There- <br />fore, a wide range of water-use and enviranmental effects needs to' be cansid- <br />ered, Electricity ar gas praduce'd fram caal will be presumed to' fi rst fulfi 11 <br />any unused capacity in the existing transporta'ti.on system and then require the <br />constructian af additianal transpartatian facil ities, Shart-term enviranment- <br />al effects of the canstructian af such facilities will nat be assessed, <br /> <br />Areal Distribution <br /> <br />Locatians af coal mines, canversion and transpartation facilities, as <br />well as the related ecanamic and demagraphic grawth associated with such en- <br />ergy develapment" need to be specified to determine where and what residuals <br />will be praduced. For this analysis, it wi1lbe assumed that canversion fa- <br />cilities will be located principally at existing or planned mines, Theaver- <br />all waste-assimilative capaci.ty af the enviranment at th.es'e lacations alsO' <br />wt11 be cansidered. An example af a sensitivity analysis applied to' the as- <br />sumed areal distributian af conversian facilities might be ,to' add two more <br />deve I apment p raposa.ls--ane emp'has iz i ng upper- bas in deve I apment and the secand <br />emphasizing 1aw.er~ba5in development--based upO'n a plan af a maderatelevel <br />(say 50 percent) af in-bas in canvers ian of coal, <br /> <br />ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC EFFECTS <br /> <br />Impacts af gr.awth will be due to' activities in primary ecanamic sectors-- <br />coal mining, canversion of coal to' electricity and ather energy forms, recre- <br />,a-t'ian, and agricuJture--plus induced grawth in suppartin:gsecandary ecanamic <br />sectors. Bath ecanomic and demographic changes will result from coal mining <br />and as'sociated activit'ies, Environmental imp'acts of economic growth praduced <br />by secondary s,ectors supparting coal mining--constructionactivities, urbani- <br />zation, and the resulting generatian af residuals--may overshadow the impacts <br />praduced by the. pdmary sectors, In arder to estimate the enviranmental im- <br />pacts of such development, prajectians af papulatian and nancaal-based econom- <br />ic activities are required. It is prapased that an existing input-autput mod- <br />el (passibly, the existing model canstructed at the University of Calarada by <br />Udis and others, 1973) be used to generate projectians of population and em- <br />ployment for both primary and secandary economic sectars, I nput-output models <br />a're static, in that they assume that techologica1 changes over time will not <br /> <br />12 <br />