4 Cumulative Impacts:

The purpose of the cumulative impacts analysis for the proposed action is to evaluate the combined, incremental effects of human activity within the scope of the project. Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations defines scope to include connected actions, cumulative actions, and similar actions (40 CFR 1508.25). The Council on Environmental Quality formally defines cumulative impacts as follows:

‘…the impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably future actions regardless of what agency (federal or non-federal) or person undertakes such other actions. Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time’ (40 CFR 1508.7).

For the purposes of this EA, the cumulative impacts are the sum of all past, present (including proposed actions), and reasonably foreseeable future actions (RFFAs) resulting primarily from mining, grazing and public uses. The purpose of the cumulative analysis in this EA is to evaluate the significance of the Proposed Action’s contributions to cumulative environment.

As required under the NEPA and the regulations implementing NEPA, this chapter addresses those cumulative effects on the environmental resources in the Cumulative Effects Study Areas (CESAs) which could result from the implementation of the Proposed Action and No Action Alternative, past actions, present actions, and RFFAs. Unless otherwise specified below, the CESA for all resources is the Unit Area and gen-tie line corridor.

For the purposes of this analysis and under federal regulations, ‘impacts’ and ‘effects’ are assumed to have the same meaning and are interchangeable.