Impact analysis and development patterns for the oil shale region Mesa, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, Colorado

Abstract

This report is part of the Colorado Oil Shale Environmental Program, a major complex of studies and activities begun in 1971 to provide information and guidance for oil shale development in Colorado. This final report "Impact Analysis and Development Patterns Related to an Oil Shale Industry: Regional Development and Land Use Study" was prepared for the Colorado West Area Council of Governments, the Oil Shale Regional Planning Commission, and the Regional Development and Land Use Planning Steering and Monitoring Committee by THK Associates, in cooperation with the Denver Research Institute and Bickert, Browne and Coddington. The major objective of this study of community impacts was to provide decision-makers the necessary information on which to base planning in order to mitigate the potentially great impacts of an oil shale industry. As study of impacts, it deals more with the hardware requirements of communities—schools, housing, sewers, land use, water—than the people impacts. It provides valuable regional timetables and quantification of the necessary growth hardware. As such, this report should be invaluable to the region in planning.