Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program
The U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) undertook an environmental impact statement (EIS) to inform federal offshore oil and gas plans for five years, spanning 2007-2012. Areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off Alaska’s North Coast were among those being considered for oil and gas leasing. The North Slope Borough collaborated with the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, a nonprofit organization, to complete a rapid HIA of the draft EIS. Through a series of negotiations on this EIS and a simultaneous EIS for MMS Lease Sale 193, the North Slope Borough convinced the MMS of the need to better address health impacts in its final EIS. Ultimately, the MMS included much of this rapid HIA in the final EIS, under subsections on environmental justice.
This represents one of the first examples of a U.S. federal agency including information from an HIA in an EIS. The North Slope Borough proposed mitigation measures, including monitoring contaminants in air and locally-harvested fish and game, protecting the food supply and addressing the social impacts (such as drug and alcohol abuse) that might be exacerbated by a large-scale influx of non-resident oil and gas workers to remote Alaska Native communities—MMS agreed to consider these mitigation measures in subsequent region-specific EISs that would evaluate specific areas in the region for leasing potential.
More Information
Final EIS:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c086673419&view=1up&seq=2
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Status:Completed
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Publication date:2007
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Decision-making levels:Federal
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Sectors:Energy, Natural resources management
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Additional topic areas:Production, Gas and oil
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Drivers of health:Alcohol, tobacco, and drug use, Clean air and water, Cultural well-being
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Affected populations:Racial and ethnic minorities
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Funding source:Other funding