[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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