2008-02-22_APPLICATION CORRESPONDENCE - C2008086 (39)

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CHAPTERFOUR Environmental Consequences and Mitigation supervisors required to deliver track materials along the route and to install the materials and lay the track. The Waterline and Transmission Line categories include equipment operators, laborers, and supervisors needed to install a waterline along the length of the railroad spur and to build an electric transmission line to the mine mouth. Table 4-2: Red Cliff Mine, Estimated Construction Employment Number (FTEs*) Annualized Year 1 Year 2 Year 1 Year 2 Earth-Moving 65.5 32.8 Bridges and Culverts 26.6 13.3 Track 44.0 22.0 W aterline* * 8.0 4.0 Transmission Line** 10.0 5.0 Mine Facilities 72.0 36.0 Total 110.1 116.0 55.1 58.0 * Full-time equivalents. * * Not from proposed action, estimated independently. Each of the categories is described in the proposed action as taking about 6 months to complete. For analysis purposes, the numbers have been annualized by dividing them in half, on the assumption that half the workers working twice as long would achieve the same result. The activities have been additionally sequenced into the likely order of occurrence. Thus, the rail spur dirtwork naturally would take place before the track was laid. It is additionally assumed that construction would occur over a period no longer than 2 years. The operations work forceminers, mine mouth facility personnel, and supervisors and managersis estimated by the proposed action to be 200 to 250 employees at the mine's full productive capacity of eight million tons a year. Here, it is assumed that the level would be 250 mine employees. There are already 47 workers associated with the existing McClane Canyon mine that would be replaced by the Red Cliff Mine, so the net additional coal mine employment would be 203. In addition to the jobs and expenditures directly related to each phase, additional jobs and income would be generated indirectly as a result of the economic linkages between the construction and mining sectors and other sectors of the local economy. Business and consumer expenditures by the mine and its employees would ripple through the economy, supporting indirect and induced increases in employment and income. These secondary effects are estimated using the IMPLAN (Input-Output Model for Planning) economic model with 2006 Mesa County data. IMPLAN is an analytical predictive model that evaluates economic effects based on a specific change in a producing sector (IlVIPLAN 2007). Table 4-3, Red Cliff Mine, Employment and Income Impacts, describes the employment impacts estimated by the model. The secondary effects of the new direct economic stimulus provided by the Red Cliff Mine would require some time to occur, as local businesses assess their ability to meet the new demand with existing resources and the likelihood of the new demand continuing into the future. Thus the effects of construction in years 1 and 2 may not occur at all or could be smaller than estimated. Construction activities are temporary in nature and, in fact, the duration 4-16 DBMS 571