Rehabilitation of Highway 62 West, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County, Oregon
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES
METHODS FOR ASSESSING IMPACTS
Cumulative Impacts
Council on Environmental Quality regulations, which implement NEPA, require assessment of cumulative impacts in the decision-making process for federal projects. Cumulative impacts are defined as “the impact on the environment, which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency (federal or nonfederal) or person undertakes such other actions (40 CFR 1508.7).” Cumulative impacts are considered for all alternatives.
Cumulative impacts were determined by combining the impacts of the preferred alternative (rehabilitating and reconstructing Highway 62 West) with other past, present, or reasonably foreseeable future actions. It was, therefore, necessary to identify major past, ongoing, or reasonably foreseeable future actions affecting the park.
There were no past projects identified during scoping that would contribute to cumulative impacts. Present and future actions that may have potential to cumulatively impact resources include:
- planned prescribed burns (fire management),
- trails rehabilitation and relocation,
- reconstruction of the Rim parking lot,
- waterline replacement from Munson Springs to Garfield,
- lagoon project at Munson Valley, and
- rehabilitation of superintendent’s house.
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