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Learn about the importance of mitigation measures to prevent adverse impacts and maximize benefits in communities undergoing rapid industrial development. Explore case examples from Sublette County, Wyoming, and other regions, highlighting social, economic, and environmental impacts.
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MitigationWhat are we asking it to accomplish? • Prevent adverse impacts • Maximize benefits • Not create fundamental instability in communities • Establish a strong platform for good managment
MitigationHow can you implement it? • Formal requirement in the record of decision • New state regulation • New municipality regulation: eg. zoning requirement • Voluntary action by health department • Specific voluntary mitigation with industry • Broader impact/benefit agreement with industry
Case Examples:1. Sublette County, Wyoming From 1995 to 2007, Sublette Co. Wyoming changed from a rural agricultural county to the larges gas-producing county in Wyoming.
Case Examples:1. Sublette County, Wyoming • Impacts? • Doubling of vehicle-related accidents • Road maintenance problems • Massive inflation in housing prices, labor costs (driving local businesses to collapse), durable goods and food prices • Local schools burdened with large increase in students • 168% increase in EMS runs • Methamphetamine use common among workers
Case Examples:1. Sublette County, Wyoming • Social Impacts: • Study by U. Wyoming showed that • most social impacts relate to influx of temporary workers (decreased social cohesion) • Although a low-income county at baseline, most residents identified lifestyle, safety, and low population as reasons for living there; employment/business was low on the list • Planning-related functions (meetings, documents, legislation) now consume inordinate % of peoples/ time.
Case Examples:1. Sublette County, Wyoming • Crime: (2000 – 2006) • 100% increase in violent crimes • 56% increase in property crimes • 233% increase in juvenile offenses • 312% increase in citations for DUI • 6,550% increase in fish & game citations
Case Examples:2. SEMP:Socio-economic Monitoring and Mitigation Program Santa Barbara Tri-county mitigation program responding to OCS development. As a permit condition for OCS activities, 3 counties imposed the SEMP. There was initial disagreement: • Industry: “development is positive; costs are offset by standard mechanisms – permit fees, property taxes, individual taxes on employees” • Counties: “OCS is different because local government can’t control decisions on federal waters; there are no taxes on offshore facilities, even if they lead to costs, such as onshore pollution; scale of industrial activity was completely out of character of traditional uses of area.
Case Examples:2. SEMP • Monitoring: • Estimate Tri-County employment and population impacts of OCS development • Estimate public facilities/services impacts (current and future) • Provide socioeconomic data necessary to develop cost-effective mitigation
Case Examples:2. SEMP • Mitigation Goals: • Offset costs to local governments • Attenuate Boom/bust cycle: developers pay for construction/maintenance of any facilities/expansion required • Mitigation: • Linked to monitoring, program resulted in $10 million in payments to compensate for costs to: • School districts • Community services (water, sewer, roads) • Affordable housing • Public services
Case Examples:3. Camisea • Development of large gas field in Peruvian Rainforest • Home to isolated, seldom-contacted tribes • Initial exploration by Shell in mid-1980s: • Epidemics of influenza and pertussis, killing roughly ½ of the population • Social problems • Outbreaks of STDs • Deep and severe inter-tribal conflicts • Project eventually terminated, until a second effort by Shell in 1995
Case Examples:3. Camisea • What was different in 1995? • “development island” concept: • No Roads (prevented illegal hunting/logging) • Interaction with community only through “health passport” • Social Capital/Sustainable Development, rather than “compensation”: • Strengthen local institutions, “Mothers Clubs” (women administer local projects on behalf of their communities • Building community infrastructure • Health Baseline Assessment
Case Examples:4. Nanisivik Mine • Benefits: • Economic opportunity • Employment • Funds for subsistence • Adverse Impacts • Alcohol problems: increased assess, more money for alcohol • Family breakdown: long periods of work away from home • No evidence for a significant sustainable economic benefit • CONCLUSION: the mine could have had a greater positive effect if there had been a consistent focus on local business development and capacity-building.