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

Home Browse Search

CHAPTERFOUR Environmental Consequences and Mitigation levy in western Garfield County. This amount is about 5 percent of the tota12003 property tax revenue collected by Garfield County and the school district that taxes property in the area of the Red Cliff Mine. The property tax revenue due Mesa and Garfield Counties on the equipment and facilities, including the rail spur, cannot be estimated because no information on the value of the facilities is available. Sales taxes are imposed in Mesa County by the state, the county, and the incorporated communities in the Grand Valley. Revenues to all these jurisdictions would increase because of the additional business and consumer expenditures generated by the proposed action. Since the direct and indirect economic activity attributable to the mine makes up less than a 1 percent addition to the economy of Mesa County, the increased sales tax revenue would be marginal. Mesa County and jurisdictions within the county would indirectly receive benefit of the severance taxes and federal royalties paid by the Red Cliff Mine. Jurisdictions within the county receive a direct payment equal to 15 percent of the Severance Tax Local Impact Fund's 50 percent share of the severance tax, based on the residency of mine employees. At peak production, that would be an annual payment equal to $137,700. Additionally, jurisdictions in Garfield County would receive a share of the federal royalties distributed to the state. That share has been increasing in the last few years (as the total amount of royalties received by the state increases) and has averaged about 411 percent the last 2 years. At that percentage, Garfield County jurisdictions would receive a total of about $850,000 annually. The combined severance and federal royalty payments that would go annually to jurisdictions in the two counties is estimated at $982,500. This amount is about 5 percent of the total resource-related revenue received by Mesa and Garfield Counties in 2003. A sizeable portion of the severance tax and federal mineral royalty receipts is placed in the Local Government Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance Program. The funds administered by this program are made available to communities impacted by mineral development. Both Mesa County and communities within the county would be eligible to receive grants and loans through this program to help address impacts produced by the proposed action. Environmental Justice As described in the environmental justice section of Chapter 3, the environmental justice requirement of Executive Order 12898 is that "Federal agencies identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including the socioeconomic effects of their programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations." Minority populations in this context are Hispanic, African-American, American Indian, Asian, or Pacific Islander populations that either a) exceed 50 percent in the affected area or b) are meaningfully of greater percentage than in the general population. Low- income populations are those whose incomes fall below the federally defined poverty threshold (CEQ 1997). As discussed in Chapter 3, the percentage of minorities within the study area does not exceed 50 percent and is substantially lower than the percentage in the State of Colorado as a whole. Consequently, the proposed project would not disproportionately affect minority populations as defined. The percentage of the population that falls below the poverty level in the study area is not meaningfully higher than the percentage for the State of Colorado as a whole. In addition, because very few people live in or near the project area, no minority or low-income populations have been identified that would experience common conditions of environmental exposure or 4-20 DBMS 575