No major technological breakthroughs wiTl occur in the near 

 future which could be expected to significantly change the 

 environmental impact potential of OCS development. 



4. In established onshore refinery and transportation areas, 

 the significant impacts on fish and wildlife and their 

 habitats will come from the release of hydrocarbons during 

 tanker transfers. 



5. A significant potential for both direct and indirect impacts 

 of OCS development on fish and wildlife in frontier areas 



is expected from site alterations resulting from develop- 

 ment of onshore facilities. 



6. The potential for onshore impacts on fish and wildlife 

 generally will increase, at least initially, somewhat in 

 proportion to the level of onshore OCS development activity. 



The assumptions related to assessment of impacts were: 



1. There is sufficient knowledge of the effects of OCS develop- 

 ment activities to anticipate direct and indirect impacts 



on fish and wildlife from known oil and gas recovery systems. 



2. This knowledge can be used to formulate advance criteria for 

 conservation of fish and wildlife in relation to specific 

 OCS development activities. 



3. Criteria for the protection of environments affected by 

 OCS-related facilities may be broadly applied to equivalent 

 non-OCS-related facilities in the coastal zone. 



The products of this project--reported in the series Environ- 

 mental Planning for Offshore Oil and Gas— consist of five technical 

 report volumes. The five volumes of the technical report series are 

 briefly described below: 



Volume I Reviews the status of oil and gas resources of the 

 Outer Continental Shelf and programs for their 

 development; describes the recovery process step- 

 by-step in relation to existing environmental 

 regulations and conservation requirements; and 

 provides a detailed analysis for each of fifteen 

 OCS activity and facility development projects 

 ranging from exploration to petroleum processing. 



m 



