What’s health got to do with it?unbc.ca/sites/default/files/sections/health-research-institute/... · Los Angeles • Biggest GHG disaster in American history • 96 000 metric

What’s health got to do with it? Exploring BC’s unconventional natural gas sector through

the lens of community and health impacts

Chris Buse, PhD

Project Lead Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium

University of Northern British Columbia

IDC Brown Bag Webinar Series Prince George, BC

May 26, 2016

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CIRC The Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium

Outline


• Introducing the CIRC

• BC’s natural gas future: The question of LNG

• Identifying community impacts across the supply chain focus: results from a scoping review – Research Question – Methods – Results

Introducing the CIRC • CIRC is a research and outreach initiative at UNBC

seeking to understand the cumulative environmental, social and health impacts of resource development across northern BC

• The CIRC is collaboratively governed by the Health Research Institute, the Community Development Institute, and the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute


Acknowledgements Steering Committee

Present: Greg Halseth (CDI); Marleen Morris (CDI); Margot Parkes (HRI – on sabbatical); Henry Harder (HRI); Rachael Wells (HRI); Art Fredeen (NRESi); Michelle Connolly (PICS) Past: Kyle Aben (PICS); Leanne Elliott (NRESi)

Advisory Committee Present: John Disney; Lana Lowe; Joan Chess; Jennifer Pighin; Nicole Cross; Andy Ackerman; Viva Wolf; Richard Kabzems; Wayne Salewski; Sandra Harris; Charl Badenhorst; Alan Madrigga; Rob Spitzer


Funding Support Personnel Support:

Nadia Nowak; Jordan Jackson; Trina Fyfe

BC’s natural gas future: The question of LNG

BC is home to roughly half of Canada’s known reserves of natural gas (most of it in northern BC)



NEB reference case forecast for Canadian gas production by province through 2035 (Source: Hughes 2015)

Natural Gas Development is Expected to Significantly Increase Across Northern BC

Most of BC’s natural gas reserves will be made accessible by ‘new’ technologies (i.e. directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing)



BC LNG Strategy


• Five LNG plants operating by 2020

• 100 000 new jobs

• $175 billion in industry investment

• Estimated $1 trillion in economic impact for provincial economy

Georgia Straight

How do we plan for climate calamity?

• On October 23, 2015 a massive natural gas leak occurred at Aliso Canyon near Los Angeles

• Biggest GHG disaster in American history

• 96 000 metric tonnes of methane (roughly 5 billion cubic feet) – ~$15 million in natural gas, wasted – Equivalent to 8 million tonnes of CO2, or

the annual emissions of 600 000 automobiles


Given the political push to develop unconventional natural gas sources in BC, there is a requirement for us to move beyond aggregate economic analyses to better understand how these forms of development impact northern communities across the supply chain…

Source: Parkes (2016), Chapter 6, The Integration Imperative

Research Question: How are communities impacted by unconventional natural gas development, and how do those impacts vary for ‘upstream’ gas producing regions, ‘midstream’ gas transporting corridors, and downstream gas exporting communities?


Research Methods


• Establishing search criteria

• Search and retrieval • Application of

inclusion/exclusion criteria

• Data Charting and narrative review synthesis

• Reporting and knowledge mobilization

Year of Publication (N=343)


7 6 8 5 7 9 16

29

55

101 91

6 3

2% 2% 2% 1% 2% 3% 5%

8%

16%

29% 27%

2% 1% 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 NA

National Focus (N=343)


17 25 2 3 11 2 4 2 2 6

237

23 11 5% 7%

1% 1% 3% 1% 1% 1% 1% 2%

69%

7% 3% 0

50

100

150

200

250

*Countries with one article: Algeria, Bolivia, Ghana, India, Iran, Peru, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa and Mexico.

Population Focus (N=343)


266

51 37

92

21 19 6 4 8 4 15

78%

15% 11%

27%

6% 6% 2% 1% 2% 1% 4%

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Supply Chain Focus (N=343)


105

222

63 32

31%

65%

18% 9%

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Multiple or General Focus Upstream Midstream Downstream

Community Impacts (N=343)

19

116

11

65

3 16

2 11

59

15 30

15 2

50

22 23 16

46

1 8

131

40 37 31

100

27 35

63 6%

34%

3%

19%

1% 5%

1% 3%

17%

4% 9%

4% 1%

15%

6% 7% 5%

13%

0% 2%

38%

12% 11% 9%

29%

8% 10%

18%

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Wat

er S

uppl

y

Wat

er Q

ualit

y

Eart

hqua

ke Air

Noi

se

Agric

ultu

ral

Soils

Civi

l Inf

rast

ruct

ure

Indu

stria

l Inf

rast

ruct

ure

Tran

spor

tatio

n

Labo

ur/w

orkf

orce

Heal

th a

nd S

ocia

l Ser

vice

s

Emer

genc

y Se

rvic

es

Loca

l Eco

nom

ic D

evel

opm

ent

Pers

onal

Inco

me

Hous

ing

Wor

ker S

afet

y

Com

mun

ity S

afet

y

Crim

e

Popu

latio

n Dy

nam

ics

Heal

th

Chan

ges t

o Va

lues

/Att

idue

s

Soci

al C

ohes

ion

Cultu

ral

Polic

y/Re

gula

tion

Regu

lato

ry o

r Gov

erna

nce

Capa

city

Advo

cacy

Part

icip

atio

n/Co

nsul

tatio

n/Tr

ust

Environmental Infrastructure and ServiceDelivery

Socio-economic Impacts Policy/Regulationand Participation

What’s health got to do with it? (1)

Source: Adgate et al 2014, Env Sci & Tech

What’s health got to do with it? (2)

Direct • Chemical exposure can

damage lungs, liver, kidneys, blood and brain (Finkel and Law 2011, AJPH)

• Industrial accidents • Air and water

contamination

Indirect • Traffic and noise

pollution • Highway accidents and

industrial infrastructure failure

• Psychosocial stress from community change

• Housing • Climate change

Identifying Policy and Governance Strategies

Policy/Regulation, Capacity, Advocacy, and Participation (N=343)

28%, (N=9)

6% (N=2)

13% (N=4)

22% (N=7)

24% (N=15) 8%

(N=5) 10%

(N=6) 16%

(N=10)

24% (N=53)

9% (N=16)

9% (N=20)

14%

(N=30)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Policy/Regulation Regulatory or GovernanceCapacity

Advocacy Participation/Consultation/Trust

Downstream Midstream Upstream

Recommendations to mitigate community impacts

Upstream Midstream Downstream

• Increase the role of the public health sector in decision-making

• Develop ‘fair share’ agreements with local municipalities

• Strengthen regulations to control emissions and improve baseline testing for air/water

• Create comprehensive pipeline management plans that span jurisdictions

• Restrict pipeline development in parks and inhabited areas

• Improve local participation in siting decisions

• Address public safety concerns

• Improve consultation with First Nations • Support the conduct of independent study of impacts through citizen-science or

participatory research • Mandate cumulative effects assessment at the large landscape level

• Develop proactive planning processes capable of integrating environmental, community and health information

• HIA as a promising tool…but need to be more proactive and holistic

Knowledge Gaps • Community impacts of midstream and downstream UNG

development are understudied • Long-term studies analyzing exposure and time to event data

(absence of data does not imply no harm is being done – Finkel and Hays 2013, AJPH)

• Few comprehensive population based-studies for public health effects of UNG exist (Adgate et al. 2014, Env Sci & Tech)

• Demographic and economic changes associated with an influx of workers and resulting boom/bust – what are the impacts to issues such as social service provision, crime rates, poaching and sexual violence?

• The capacity challenges that local governments experience in addressing impacts before, during and after they take place

• The equity implications of UNG developments – how fairly are UNG impacts distributed, particularly among marginalized populations


Discussion • Health impacts of unconventional natural gas can be

both direct and indirect • We need to support longer term planning and

assessment processes (on a larger landscape level) to enable appropriate risk identification and mitigation

• Northern BC has significant resources: public health has an important role to play in protecting the environment and the economy as much as it does human health


Notable Next Steps • Continued analysis of scoping review data

• Socioeconomic and health indicators of resource

development (HRI, BC CDC, NH)

• New tools for understanding the cumulative environmental, community and health impacts of resource development projects across northern BC


My coordinates

[email protected] | 778.349.4242 | @CIRC_UNBC www.unbc.ca/cumulative-impacts

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http://www.unbc.ca/cumulative-impacts

Documents

What’s health got to do with it?unbc.ca/sites/default/files/sections/health-research-institute/... · Los Angeles • Biggest GHG disaster in American history • 96 000 metric