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CNAPTERTWO Proposed Action and Alternatives The number of workers for both the construction and operation phases, and for each project component is shown on Table 2-6. 2.3.3.6 Transportation Truck and commuter traffic associated with the Accelerated Development Alternative would correspond with the increased level of employment, both during the construction and operations phases. During the 18-month construction phase, vehicle trips to both sites would roughly double to a peak of approximately 470 commuter trips expected daily. For the pipeline construction, commuter trips would amount to approximately 100 trips per day, which is the same as described for the Proposed Action (Table 2-7). The origins of these commuter trips would be distributed among the local communities in the project azea from both Rio Blanco and Gazfield Counties, as described for the Proposed Action. Truck trips during the construction phase would similazly increase to an estimated 208 per day during the peak of construction activity. During the operations phase, increased project staffing would also be expected t~~ increase commuter trips to approximately 230 trips daily. Truck trips aze estimated to tota162 trips per day under the Accelerated Development Alternative. It is estimated that rail traffic would increase to about 93 100-ton rail cars per day, 5 days per week, or 465 cazs per week. American Soda would run three trains per day each hauling about 31 cazs down the rail spw to the Union Pacific main line. 2.4 NO ACTION ALTERNATIVE The No Action Alternative evaluates impacts that would occw in the event the ~~ankee Gulch Project Commercial Mine Plan was not approved. Disapproval of the Mine Plan. would occw if the impact analysis in this EIS and the subsequent ROD concluded that the Proposed Action would result in undue and unnecessary degradation, which is prohibited by 43 CFR 3809. Acceptable impacts include the reasonable and necessary degradation associated with the distwbance required for the extraction and processing of minerals. Under the No Action Alternative, American Soda would not receive approval to develop the Yankee Gulch Project; solution mining wells, pipelines, and associated processing facilities would not be developed; and proven nahcolite reserves in the area would remain undeveloped. As such, the opportunity to develop mineral resowces, as authorized by law, woiild be foregone on Federal lands. The project could not be developed in a feasible manner without the use of Federal (BLM) lands. Under the No Action Alternative, ongoing mining activities under the existing E:Kploration Plan and Test Mine Plan could continue under the terms of their existing approvals, but in all likelihood these activities would cease if there was no prospect of commercial mine development. In this case, workers currently employed by American Soda would subsequently be laid off, and, after closwe of the Test Mine, various existing facilities such as the control building, solution mining wells, piping, and ponds would be dismantled and the rite would be reclaimed. No modifications to the Unocal refinery would take place. 2-34