This section addresses the potential for the alternatives to have disproportionate adverse impacts on minority and low-income populations, including direct, indirect, short-term, and long-term impacts. Laws, regulations, policies, and guidance considered in the analysis of disproportionate adverse impacts are identified in Appendix B.

Because the analysis of disproportionate adverse impacts depends on the impacts identified from management of resources, definitions of adverse impacts as they apply to environmental justice issues are closely related to the definitions of adverse impacts in other resource areas (e.g., social resources). For example, the displacement of a mobile home park that houses a low-income population in order to build a new road may be a disproportionate direct impact. An example of a disproportionate indirect impact would be a reduction in social services to low-income individuals that may result from decreased tax revenues as a result of decreased mineral production.