Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment
and Environmental Consequences
This chapter summarizes the physical, biological, social, and economic environments of the
project area and the effects of implementing each alternative on that environment. It also presents
the scientific and analytical basis for the comparison of alternatives presented in the alternatives
chapter (chapter 2).
Methodology
The interdisciplinary study team (see “Chapter 4. Preparers and Contributors”) followed a
structured process to analyze the potential environmental impacts, or effects, resulting from the
no action and two action alternatives. This procedure, called the cause-effects-questions (C-E-Q)
process, is described in the text box below.
Causes-Effects-Questions:
A Structured Analytic Process
Step 1: Identify the specific activities, tasks, and subtasks involved in the proposed
action(s) and alternative(s).
Step 2: For each specific activity, task, and subtask, determine the full range of direct
effects that each could have on any environmental resource. For example, removing
vegetation could cause soil erosion.
Step 3: For each conceivable direct effect, identify which further effects could be caused by
the direct effects. For example, soil erosion could cause stream sedimentation,
which could harm or kill aquatic macroinvertebrates, which could diminish the food
supply for fish, leading to decreased fish populations. This inquiry can identify
multistepped chains of potential causes and effects.
Step 4: Starting at the beginning of each chain of causes and effects, work through a series
of questions for each potential effect:
○ Would this effect actually occur from this project?
○ If not, why not?
○ What would preclude it from happening?
○ If the effect cannot be ruled out, characterize which types of data, other
information, and analyses are needed to determine the parameters of the effect,
including its extent, duration, and intensity.
○ Identify the sources from which the data are to be obtained.
Step 5: Gather the data and conduct the analyses identified by the above steps, utilizing only
relevant information.
Step 6: Document the results of this study process.
DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest 91