Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
remote accidents offsite, further reducing the burden on local Emergency Medical Services
(EMS) (Velasquez et al., 2012).
Regardless of emergency care onsite, it is likely that some injuries would require the use of local
health care services. The project site would have a helicopter pad available for quick access to
emergency medical air ambulance. These patients will likely be transferred to Albuquerque where
there is increased capacity for care of severe injuries. Overall, if MSHA and OSHA regulations
are adhered to it is expected that workplace injuries would create very little increased demand for
local health care services.
The project may also increase demand on local health care services through the direct or indirect
increase of certain conditions including alcohol and drug related issues, social pathology, and
increased rates of infectious disease. The project-related mechanisms through which these
impacts may occur are described earlier on in this section. It is expected that there would be an
increase in these conditions and that that will result in an increase in demand for local health care
services. The mitigation measures that can be implemented to reduce these impacts, and reduce
use of local services, are repeated here:
• Strict enforcement of company policies on alcohol and drug use, including a no tolerance
policy for alcohol and drug use while working
• Implementation of an alcohol and drug abuse education program, including the
availability of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for those employees who selfidentify
as needing help
• Providing access to STD testing for workers
• Providing condoms to workers, particularly to employees who travel frequently
• Providing clear messages on appropriate behavior in the community
• Partnering with public health centers to increase availability of STD testing
• Performing a needs assessment for housing in advance of Project construction and
operations
• Partnering with local housing authorities to plan for adequate low income housing
options for workers.
Effect Characterization
The extent of all these impacts would depend on the actual numbers of in-migrant workers
required for each phase of project construction, operations, and decommissioning, the length of
time for each of these phases, the housing options available in the local area, and the current and
future capacity of health care services. If this increased demand exceeds the capacity of local
services, then community health may be affected by reduced access to, and quality of, available
health and social services.
The impacts to health stemming from workforce migration during construction, operation, and
decommissioning for the proposed action are expected to be of moderate magnitude, to have a
medium geographic extent, and to be of medium-term duration. There is probable likelihood of
these impacts occurring and the precedence or uniqueness is slight. Therefore, the overall level of
DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest 423