[Coral-List] Selection of mining sites for the Majuro airport developments
Rob Hilliard, imco
rhilliard at imco.com.au
Wed May 18 14:40:21 EDT 2011
If Dean Jacobsen's information re. his news and appeal about the Majuro
airport development is complete and correct, then I'd suspect the FAA
might be exposed to one or two court injunction mechanism/s - possibly
relatively rapid - and taken on the basis of the need to halt for review
a US funding agreement/development aid project that was the subject of
an apparently markedly deficient EIA approval process, and that
otherwise is now set to destroy a reef resource of high biodiversity
significance in the region near Majuro.
>From Dean's information, it appears the EIA process was deficient and
notably out of step with basic scoping concepts used by development
banks and agencies around the world, in line with a range of well-known
policies such as the Equator Principles etc.
If selection of mining site options was not part of the project's EIA
and approval process, it also raises the question as to what level of
steps were taken to check the chance and scale of possible 'knock-on'
erosion/ sedimentation effects (as a result of storm and/or routine wave
climate and currents interacting with the altered seafloor topography,
slope gradient and lost hard substrate integrity).
However I find it difficult to imagine that a US funding body would
ignore such questions or steps. It seems much may depend on what effort
the FAA took to ensure that selection of the mining site/s received
adequate attention, review and stakeholder input - at levels relevant to
the respective policies and regulatory requirements of the RMI and the
US, including international treaty obligations such as the CBD and
well-established international funding procedures.
_________________________
Robert Hilliard PhD Pg.Dip (EMS)
InterMarine Consulting Pty Ltd
19 Burton Road,Darlington
Western Australia 6070
Mob: +61 427 855 485
Office: +61 8 6394 0606
Fax: +61 8 9255 4668
*rhilliard at imco.com.au <mailto:rhilliard at imco.com.au>*
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