Integrating Health Impact Assessment into the U.S. Environmental Impact Statement process: Examples from Alaskan oil and gas development, and implications for U.S. policy

In this session, we will present what may be the first formal effort to integrate a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) into a federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the U.S.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 established U.S. environmental policy, directing federal agencies to consider the impact of major federal actions on the “human environment,” and creating the EIS process. NEPA declares that its fundamental purpose is stimulating “the health and welfare of man.” Federal regulations on its implementation make clear reference to the requirement to address human health. Yet as the implementation of this far-reaching legislation has evolved, EIS typically address human health marginally if at all.

Plans for oil and gas development in Alaska's Arctic are expanding rapidly, and threaten to encroach on the territory which supports the Inupiat people, and to create tremendous economic, social, cultural, and public health changes. Rural Alaska Native communities are heavily dependent on natural resources, and the North Slope Inupiat derive well over 50% of their nutritional needs from hunting and fishing in the region.

Together with the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, the regional government for the North Slope recently began an unprecedented collaboration with the federal government to integrate HIAs into currently active EIS processes. We will present the results of these HIAs, discuss the statutory basis for their inclusion and the process of negotiation between the local community and the federal regulatory agencies, and review the potentially broad applications of this effort elsewhere in the U.S.