Loran-C chains currently in operation or approved for construction will soon cover not only the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes waters, but also 63 percent of the land area and 92 percent of the population of the contiguous 48 states. The mid-continent expansion of Loran-C, representing the completion of nationwide coverage, could be provided at an initial cost of $22 million plus $1.1 million a year in operations and maintenance expenses. These costs would be less than 20 percent of the existing facilities investment already in place and operated by the Coast Guard. The results of the study indicate $125 million in Loran-C land user benefits as compared to $52 million in user and Loran-C chain costs during the 1982 to 1990 time period. Significant benefits were found in emergency medical services ($52M), rural fire suppression ($22M), police management ($17M), and highway accident location and traffic records ($14M). Using a 10 percent discount rate and benefit estimates restricted to the mid-continent area, other cost-effective applications (benefit-to-cost ratio higher than five) were: nuclear materials security, aerial spraying, biomass inventory, and forest and wildfire suppression. These estimates were obtained through extensive discussions with seven federal agencies (HEW, FHWA, NHTSA, DOE, etc.), many state and local agencies, and industry. The results are conservative and represent only the public (as opposed to private) benefits of a limited number of potential land applications of Loran-C.
Samenvatting