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{ Page VI-1 Draft Environmental Impact Report Forward Landfill Expansion VI. OTHER CEQA TOPICS AND IMPACT OVERVIEW A. GROWTH INDUCING IMPACTS The CEQA Guidelines (Section 15125(g)) require that an EIR evaluate the growth- inducing impacts of a proposed action. A growth-inducing impact is defined by the Guidelines as "the way in which a proposed project could foster economic or population growth, or the construction of additional housing, either directly or indirectly, in the surrounding environment. Included in this definition are public works projects which remove obstacles to population growth." The environmental effects of induced growth are secondary,or indirect, impacts of the proposed action. Secondary effects of growth include increased demand on community services and infrastructure, increased traffic and noise, and conversion of agricultural and open space to development use. Inducement of disorderly growth that is inconsistent with local land use plans generally causes significant environmental impacts. If the proposed landfill expansion would stimulate growth into the area, then the project would have growth inducing impacts. However, since this development involves neither the extension of public service, such as water or sewer lines, nor the creation of a land use that would stimulate adjacent development,the proposed landfill expansion is not likely to have growth-inducing impacts. It should also be noted that construction and operation of the expansion would,because of the resulting environmental impacts, make the project area less desirable for development. The proposed landfill expansion would be considered growth inducing if providing additional disposal capacity the landfill would encourage development in the area. There is no evidence that available waste disposal capacity is limiting development in the areas that would be served by the Forward Landfill. B. SUMMARY OF CUMULATIVE IMPACTS In evaluating potential environmental impacts, CEQA requires that the project be considered within the context of regional development. While the environmental effects resulting from an individual project may appear less than significant when considered alone, they may be significant when added to impacts caused by other projects in the area. Cumulative impacts are defined by CEQA Guidelines Section 15355 as "two or more individual effects which, when considered together, are considerable, or which compound or increase other environmental impacts." The cumulative impacts analyses in this document are made on made on the basis of lists of past, present, and reasonably anticipated future projects, as well as projections of growth that encompass both specific development and other regional growth (for example, in B.Transportation and Circulation). y The cumulative effects of the project together with other reasonably foreseeable development has been considered and discussed in detail in each of the various analyses of Chapter.IV. In summary, the following significant cumulative impacts were identified: