7923

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7923
• Author: Carter, J. G. and V. A. Lamarra.
• Title: An Ecosystem Approach To Environmental Management, Chapter 17.
• USFW Year: n.d.
• USFW - Doc Type: 261-287
• Copyright Material: YES

environmental integrity of the developed areas and to
develop technology for environmental protection. Given
the complexity and variability of the environment, how
could managers make logical decisions from such a highly
variable data base? We felt that organizing the data
base, its analysis, and interpretation using an ecosystem
framework would provide tools which were usable and
understandable.

The following environmental management program is
being developed for use on the federal oil shale tracts Ua
and Ub. These tracts are leased by the White River Shale
Oil Corporation. The reclamation goal is to restore the
tracts to the pre-mining condition. lli- vi
management/monitoring pro ram is designed to identify
ecosystem co ponents most affected by oi s a e m1n1ng and
to restore and guide reclamation by tracking ecosystem
-changes afterward. We discuss here the application of
th1S program to management of the aquatic resources in
the White River basin. The same approach is being
integrated into the entire environmental program for the
Ua and Ub tracts.

FACTORS IMPORTANT TO THE DESIGN OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In addition to the need for a system that leads to
logical, correct, data based decisions, several other
factors were important in the design of the environmental
management program for White River Shale Oil Corporation.
Among these were regulatory requirements for monitoring
and expected impacts due to the industry.

The Federal Oil Shale Supervisor's Office (OSO)
indicated that a primary goal of the Federal Prototype Oil
Shale Program is, To insure the environmental integrity of
the affected areas and ar-the same time develop a fuIf
range of envIrOnillenW safeguardS --and restorat'iOU
teCililiques that will be incorporated into the planning ~
a mature oil shale industry should one develop. The Oil
Shale Lease Environmental Stipulations require the lessees
to conduct a monitoring program before, during, and after
development operations. To achieve these goals, OSO
published a set of monitoring guidelines to be used in
developing monitoring programs (OSO, 1979). Included in
these guidelines are the following:

1. Describe existing environmental conditions.

2. Identify, candidate potential ~arameters to
monitor, during the initial development phase.

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