8201

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8201
• Author: Carter, J. and V. Lamarra.
• Title: An ecosystem approach to environmental management.
• USFW Year: 1983.
• USFW - Doc Type: 261-287
• Copyright Material: YES

Figure 1).
m January
lor ado and
s became

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. The
management/monitoring program is designed to identify
ecosystem components most affected by oil shale mining and
to restore and guide reclamation by tracking ecosystem
changes afterward. We discuss here the application of
this 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

le tracts.

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 a~he same time develop a full
range of environmental safeguards ~d restoration
techniques that will be incorporated into-the planning of
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:

period,
te, soils,
ffort was
e the many
addressed.
rated on
with less
d from oil
feasible,
with shale
'ironmental
: data base
which can
and aid in

1. Describe existing environmental conditions.

Shale Oil
nsure the

2. Identify candidate potential parameters to
monitor during the initial development phase.

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