ON THE VALUE OF SIMULTANEOUSLY ADDRESSING HUMAN HEALTH RISK AND POTENTIAL NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGES

摘要

During an emergency response to an incident, it is both possible and frequently advantageous to simultaneously address human health risk and injury to natural resources. Integration plays an important role in the overall outcome and success of a response effort for an emergency incident. The primary focus during an emergency incident for the On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) is traditionally the reduction of risk to human health. As such, historical response activities have somewhat failed to incorporate other risks, mainly the risk of injury to natural resources. This paper discusses the value of considering incorporation of natural resources potentially affected by the incident early on in the response process. Integration of the delegated interests of all the stakeholders, including the natural resource trustees, into the planning of response actions can serve to accomplish restoring the natural resources that were injured as well as reduce the human health risks associated with the incident. The only means of accomplishing these goals simultaneously is to incorporate all objectives, when possible, through effective communication and coordination of all parties. This paper draws on the authors? experience from over 100 emergency response actions to identify the key factors for the successful integration of restoration into response.