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002895 ScreenIng Procedures Alternate plans of coal-resource development, including energy conversIon or transportation, In-plant residual-modification options, residual-treatment levels, and water-development options, will generate such a large number of proposals that It would be InfeasIble to analyze all the environmental ef- fects for each proposal. Many of the proposals can be removed from further analysis by applying a series of screening techniques, described below. Empirical Methods Empirical screening methods will be used to check for basic feasibilities in terms of achieving: (1) Total water demands, (2) specific environmental standards, and (3) a marginal cost balance for the residual controls, Some simple modeling techniques may be used at thIs stage to delineate imbalances from ambIent conditions, Proposals with excessive development of water sup- plies In relation tO,demands also would be elimInated. Screening with Environmental Models Several models will be used to simulate the behavior of selected environ- mental variables, water, DO, and so forth, with reference to normal background conditIons and also environmental standards, After the envIronmental models are applied, the results will be compared to the appropriate environmental standards and ambient conditIons in the basin. By usIng some basic rule-of- thumb guidelines, this technique wil I be used to screen out environmentally infeasible proposals. Dominance Screenings All feasible proposals for a particular coal-production level and set of conversIon alternatives still may not be worthwhile considering. For example, one proposal might be strIctly preferred to another in that all objectives are equally or better met by that proposal, As long as those involved in basin planning and management are in agreement on the preferred order, then such proposals need not be further evaluated and these would be removed from the screening analysis. Criteria Evaluation The large number of proposals remaining even after the screening proce- dures previously described will require further selective analysis. For an- alysis in the basin assessment, the proposals finally considered may be re- stricted to some basic variations around the projections described in the Northwestern Colorado Coal Environmental Impact Statement (U,S. Bureau of land Management and U.S, Geological Survey, written commun., 1976). However, for the residuals-management analysis, the selection of proposals for further in- vesti9atIon will span a broader range of options to better illustrate parti- cular interrelationships among policy options relating to water development, degree of residual treatment, residual modification, water use, energy effi- ciency, and costs. 27