ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the legislative, planning, and disruptive aspects of the primary impacts--that is, sitespecific environmental impacts such as air and water quality, surface disturbances, and wildlife habitat disturbances. One of the major constraints on oil shale development is protection of the natural environment. Environmental effects associated with the development of an oil shale complex are characterized as primary impacts and secondary impacts, although distinction between the two is often artificial or arbitrary. Potential oil shale developers are engaged in perhaps the most extensive environmental planning program in the history of mineral development. The size, location, and number of oil shale processing plants finally built will greatly affect the ability of the industry to meet current or future air quality standards. An oil shale complex will involve retorting, refining, and, except for "pure" in-situ recovery operations, mining, crushing and waste disposal; each of these operations presents possible environmental hazards.
