Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
personal, environmental, and societal influences that impact health, it is difficult to determine to
what extent poverty in the ROI contributes to these health trends; however, given the strong
association between poverty and health outcomes it is reasonable to conclude that poverty plays a
role in some of these observed trends.
The proposed action as well as future development in the local area have the potential to
influence poverty by providing employment opportunities for those in need of work. In
discussions that took place in February 2012, local stakeholders stated that the community is in
need of employment opportunities and that there are community members in the local area who
are very eager for employment opportunities associated with the project (Michael, 2012;
Yarlborough, 2012). In order for this impact to be of maximal benefit to the population in the
ROI, jobs will have to be provided to those who are currently unemployed or underemployed.
There are many reasons why people are unemployed, including lack of a particular skill set,
physical or mental disabilities, substance abuse issues, lack of job availability and, to a lesser
degree, personal will. It is unknown how many people who are unemployed will be able to find
work in the currently planned and future developments. Adding to the uncertainty that increased
employment with these developments will reduce poverty levels is the fact that with many
resource development projects, a number of outsiders tend to migrate into the area to seek out
employment opportunities. This trend was observed in the past boom cycle of the 1950s and
1960s in the ROI. This in-migration could result in fewer net jobs going to those people in the
ROI who are in need of work.
There already exist patterns of economic and health disparity within the ROI, with health
outcomes and health determinants unevenly distributed within and across the population. Recent
and present developments, as well as future development have the potential to exacerbate these
disparities both because of the uneven distribution of the “rewards” of development and the
uneven distribution of the risks.
Taking all of these factors into consideration, it is likely that some people in the ROI would
benefit from current and future developments. Finding work can have a positive influence on
human health. However, there is a risk that health disparities may be exacerbated by these
developments as well.
Boom-Bust Cycles
Boom-bust cycles are a potential area where past, current, and future mining and other
developments could impact population health in the ROI. Between 1976 and 2006, there were
10,000 jobs lost in metal mining in New Mexico; 6,400 of these jobs were lost between 1980 and
1986 in uranium mining alone (Power, 2008). Despite this loss, other nonmining job sectors were
not impacted. Payrolls in the government, services, and trade sectors continued to expand,
resulting in a net increase in employment, aggregate real per capita incomes, and personal
incomes. Overall, between 1983 and 2005, 17,000 new jobs were created in the ROI and the
unemployment rate rose to 3.5 or 4 percent. The counties were able to overcome the bust period
by ensuring diversity in employment opportunities (Power, 2008).
Since 2008, however, the U.S. has undergone a severe economic recession, from which it is still
only emerging in a so-called “weak recovery.” Unemployment rates have increased substantially
and now sit at 8.4 percent in the State of New Mexico, similar to the national rate. Unemployment
DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest 425