Learning the hard way: A comparative analysis of cumulative impact assessments involving mining developments and species at risk

The utility of cumulative impact assessment stands to be tested by the management challenges found in mining proposals that threaten to tangle with species at risk. Mining tends to carry impacts that trigger the most rigorous of environmental impact assessments in the form of panel reviews. Species recognized to be at risk are species already manifesting a significant response to multiple and interacting impacts. An ideal cumulative impact assessment is constructed to fortify a concept that is theoretically well suited to deliver on the attendant management demands.; The ideal is contrasted with the cumulative impact assessments conducted for panel reviews of the proposed Cheviot coal mine in Alberta and the proposed Voisey's Bay base-metal mine in Labrador. Both projects threaten bear and duck species either known, or suspected, to be at risk. Variations from the ideal discerned from comparative analyses reveal strengths and weaknesses in current practice. A cumulative-impact-assessment standard that can be applied to all proposed mining developments with an influence on the Polar Bear ( Ursus maritimus), Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) and Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) populations under study is proposed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...