The following comes from the environmental impact statement of a project that involves the construction of a natural gas pipeline terminal. Construction of the Terminal will affect about 404 acres (164 ha) of open land and water. All affected land areas will be permanently converted to industrial land. Construction of the pipeline will impact about 412 acres (167 ha) of agricultural, industrial, and open land. However, the impacts will not be significant as most of the area disturbed by the pipeline will be within agricultural areas and will return to preconstruction conditions after construction is finished. Why does the statement predict that half the land will return to preconstruction conditions while the other half of the land will not? Any land that is not directly under the pipeline will naturally return to its previous state. Half the land is under water, meaning that the environmental impact will be lessened. Half the land has already been developed; half has not. Half the land is already being used for heavy industry so it will not be affected.
