{"id":353098,"date":"2021-10-07T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=353098"},"modified":"2021-10-07T06:00:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T20:00:12","slug":"consultation-does-not-equal-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/consultation-does-not-equal-consent\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Consultation does not equal consent\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Division
Division of Coastal Resources Management acting director Rich Salas presents recommendations for a meaningful engagement with the community for federal agencies during the\u00a0webinar on environmental justice considerations in National Environmental Policy Act reviews held last Sept. 23, for Pacific Islanders. The webinar also had officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discussing NEPA and environmental justice, and CNMI House Committee on Natural Resources chair Rep. Sheila Babauta for the CNMI perspective. Photo is a screenshot of the webinar. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CNMI laid its stance on meaningful engagement in the Pacific before officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during a webinar on environmental justice considerations in National Environmental Policy Act reviews last Friday, Sept. 23, for Pacific Islanders. <\/p>\n

House Committee on Natural Resources chair Rep. Sheila Babauta talked about environmental justice in the Marianas while Division of Coastal Resources Management acting director Rich Salas discussed the island\u2019s experience on and recommendations to the NEPA process. <\/p>\n

NEPA, signed into law back in 1970, is the \u201cnational charter for environmental responsibility,\u201d crafted to ensure that federal agencies consider the significant environmental impact of their proposed actions, and that they inform the public about their decision making process. These actions include 1) actions by federal agencies (i.e., military training, federal facilities, forestry, National Parks), 2) federal permits (gas pipelines, offshore oil and gas), and 3) federal grants (water treatment, infrastructure). <\/p>\n

While actions are explicitly identified on the NEPA, the impacts are a different story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, as EPA, don\u2019t tell the agency what a significant impact is,\u201d USEPA Region 9\u2019s Connell Dunning said. \u201cThe lead agency makes that decision, and then explains the rationale for those decisions [and] for what\u2019s the significant effect. It\u2019s important to consider. It\u2019s the context or the setting of an effect that can have an impact on whether or not something is significant.\u201d <\/p>\n

The second part of understanding significance and how lead agencies think about it, Dunning added, is the degree or intensity of the effect, and considerations for what are the long- or short-term impacts, as well as impacts on public health and safety. <\/p>\n

NEPA ties in with environmental justice as it allows for an avenue\u2014a solid process for the public to review and assess actions that are being proposed by federal agencies and could affect the public and their environment.<\/p>\n

Environmental justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12898, setting the stage for environmental justice in the country. It directed federal agencies to identify and address \u201cthe disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects\u201d of their programs, policies, and activities on minority and low-income populations. <\/p>\n

It also directed the agencies to develop strategies toward environmental justice, as well as provide minority and low-income communities access to public information and public participation. <\/p>\n

\u201cEach person should enjoy a healthful environment. However, not everyone has been given that same opportunity,\u201d USEPA Region 9\u2019s Environmental Justice coordinator Alan Bacock said at the webinar. \u201cIn general, people who live, work, play, and pray in the most polluted environments are commonly people of color, indigenous, and\/or low income. These communities suffer from disproportionate impacts of environmental burdens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental justice, Bacock added, is about \u201cmoving to where we want to go\u201d\u2014and that is bound by two key principles\u2014fair treatment and meaningful involvement. <\/p>\n

The EPA official also said that earlier this year, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14008, one task of which is increases the government\u2019s ability to address current and historic environmental injustices.<\/p>\n

NEPA from the NMI\u2019s perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the CNMI, when it comes to NEPA, most of the documents that warrant a review are proposed military activities of the U.S. Department of Defense, typically associated with the proposed relocation of the military forces to the Marianas region, according to DCRM acting director Rich Salas. <\/p>\n

CRM assesses NEPA documents as it relates to the enforceable policies of the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality. <\/p>\n

\u201cPursuant to the requirements of Section 307 of the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act, federal actions which have reasonably foreseeable effects on uses on resources within the coastal zone should be undertaken in a manner that is consistent with the enforceable policies of the Coastal Resource Management Program,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Salas, in particular, talked about the Mariana Islands Training and Testing, particularly the review of the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. \u201cIt\u2019s an extension of the military\u2019s training range. They\u2019d like to propose activities associated with terrestrial activities and marine activities. We saw that when we reviewed the documents, the activities that were proposed on land were minimal in terms of foreseeable coastal effects, but when it came to the activities that occurred at sea, we\u2019ve determined that there were reasonably foreseeable effects.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to Salas, numerous consultations were held between both the CNMI government and the federal agency, which agreed to not include amphibious landings on the island of Tinian, where sea turtles nest.<\/p>\n

From the initial release of the draft EIS in 2011 leading up to the final supplemental EIS in 2019, Salas said that the CNMI government strived to provide meaningful comments and collaborate closely with the Department of Defense. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a lot of time and effort in our teams to build up to where we were, to reach a point to where we were able to express our concerns from the CNMI\u2019s end and have the DOD consider the actions,\u201d Salas said. \u201cWe always appreciate the opportunity to work with our federal counterparts, but despite that, at the end of the day, there were still a lot of unaddressed concerns. There are still many questions and data gaps that we had requested for them to provide to the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked on that through this process, and it was great that the NEPA was able to support that process because we stuck to that. The procedural concerns was a big part of the response of the CNMI resource agencies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In his presentation, Salas also threw in some recommendations for the federal agencies, particularly to develop more transparent and frequent means of information, and a knowledge exchange process, to meaningfully engage with the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do the best we can with the resources that we have out here, but at the same time, we are still left in the dark at times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meaningfully engage with the CNMI<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very important to engage with our people, share knowledge, and encourage youth participation, when plans are being proposed, \u201d said Babauta, who highlighted the intimate connection of the people of the Marianas to the environment, which she said is so profound that language was actually included in the CNMI Covenant agreement to ensure this connection was clear during negotiations with the United States. <\/p>\n

Section 806 of the Covenant, which established the CNMI\u2019s political union with the U.S., states that \u201cthe United States will continue to recognize and respect the scarcity and special importance of land in the Northern Mariana Islands.\u201d <\/p>\n

The legislator also referenced the very first public meeting she attended that was held by a federal agency, where she was \u201ccompletely shocked\u201d by the agency\u2019s limited knowledge about the community, as she provided recommendations on how federal agencies can establish a more meaningful engagement. <\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity engagement is meaningful to us. We are pleased when the effort is made and we make the effort and return to attend. …We\u2019ve really got to make an effort just to inform the community,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

And for Babauta, effort is going all out in utilizing all forms of communication\u2014newspaper ads, radio announcements in all three official languages, radio interviews, articles in newspaper, billboards erected and strategically placed\u2014to inform the CNMI community of meetings related to proposed actions by federal agencies. <\/p>\n

Effort is providing accessibility\u2014in terms of time, location, how the meeting will be conducted, how comments will be accepted, the timelines\u2014to ensure that members of the community get to participate. <\/p>\n

The legislator also emphasized the importance for the federal agencies to recognize and accept oral comments during public meetings and hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to emphasize how important that is to us because we are an indigenous community that passed information, stories, knowledge orally from generation to generation. Accepting oral comments was a really crucial part of community participation,\u201d she said. \u201c[Also,] consultation does not equal consent. To us, it is only the first part of the process.<\/p>\n

At the webinar, the USEPA also pointed out that the Biden administration is focused on advancing environmental justice and climate justice and equity for all, and that underway are executive orders that will direct federal agencies to examine current practices, and figure out and overcome barriers to equity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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