During the permitting process for a facility, the MPCA will determine whether to require a cumulative impacts analysis.
A cumulative impacts analysis provides a comprehensive look at all burdens that affect a community or neighborhood, whether from past and current pollution or from other factors like health disparities, proximity to roads and railways, and how many other permitted facilities exist nearby.
Cumulative impacts can be positive or negative or have no measurable impact. Cumulative impacts analyses typically focus on adverse or negative impacts to prevent or minimize the harm that may result from facility emissions and discharges, site cleanups, and other permitting or assessment actions.
Cumulative impacts assessments in Minnesota
Assessments similar to cumulative impacts analyses have been required for several decades as part of environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act. While the cumulative impacts law is new to many in Minnesota, facilities located in parts of South Minneapolis have been required to conduct similar analyses since 2008, other states have also recently required them, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has started to research cumulative impacts.
Minnesota's 2023 cumulative impacts law provides new authority and guidance for cumulative impacts analyses. This statute, Minn. Stat. § 116.065, will require the MPCA to conduct cumulative impacts analyses for certain air permit decisions — when permitting the construction or expansion of a new facility or when reissuing an existing permit — in environmental justice areas within the Twin Cities metro area, Duluth, Rochester, or on tribal lands, where people are most vulnerable to pollution.
In addition to cumulative exposure to pollutants in the air, water, soil, and food, the law also directs the MPCA to consider the socioeconomic conditions that could increase harm to residents in those areas. Those conditions, described in the law as environmental stressors, include poverty, substandard housing, food insecurity, elevated rates of disease, and poor access to health insurance and medical care. Stressors, whether in the form of pollutants or socioeconomic conditions, might not cause direct harm, but they may make residents more vulnerable to harm from other stressors.
Cumulative impacts analyses can support arguments that environmental justice areas have faced disproportionate impacts from pollution and can provide new insights to address these negative outcomes.
Components and definitions for a cumulative impacts analysis
To provide a comprehensive look at past and current pollution burdens that affect a community or neighborhood, well-designed cumulative impacts analyses should:
- define the project area and describe its natural environment and community
- identify the potential adverse impacts of a proposed activity, highlighting important impacts to the environment and community
- document who these impacts will affect
- gather stakeholder and community views on the proposed actions and the cumulative impacts they have identified
- stress the uncertainties that cannot be addressed through the analysis, including information shortcomings or gaps
- provide an assessment of overall impact
Examples of indicators that a cumulative impacts analysis could include:
- Chemical and biological stressors/indicators
- ozone
- particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions
- diesel particulate matter emissions
- radon
- lead (e.g., lead paint)
- pesticides
- bacteria/viruses
- other contaminants (e.g., arsenic, mercury, trichloroethylene, PCBs, PFAS, dioxins/furans, PAHs, phthalates, toluene, etc.) released and/or migrating to various media including indoor and outdoor air, dust, surface water, groundwater, soil, sediment, biota, food, and consumer products.
- Physical stressors/indicators
- radiation (ionizing and ultraviolet)
- noise (proximity to roads, airports, railways)
- odor
- vibration
- light pollution
- visual/aesthetic changes
- Environmental effects/indicators
- natural environment – conditions/impairments of ecosystems and their function, habitat fragmentation/degradation and impacts on wildlife and fisheries (terrestrial and aquatic ecology), hunting rights, traditional food resources, etc.
- air/water/soil quality - Groundwater contamination areas or groundwater threats, impaired water bodies, drinking water quality, etc.
- built environment - density of various facilities in a census block (toxic releases from facilities), number of permitted facilities, number of permit types in an area and compliance history/corrective actions status. Examples could include cleanup sites, wastewater dischargers, solid waste sites and facilities, traffic density, etc.
- Vulnerabilities and physiological susceptibilities (intrinsic human health indicators)
- genetics and gene expression
- age and gender
- sensitive populations including pregnant individuals/individuals of childbearing age, infants and young children, elderly, disabled
- occupational exposures/populations
- occurrence of disease/other markers:
- asthma (emergency department visits)
- cardiovascular disease (emergency department visits for heart attacks)
- diabetes rates
- cancer rates
- other pre-existing conditions
- low birth weight infants
- malnutrition
- infectious diseases
- blood lead levels
- life expectancy
- psychosocial stress
- health behaviors (e.g., diet/nutritional status, exercise frequency, tobacco use, drug use, etc.)
- Demographic and socioeconomic factors (extrinsic human heath indicators)
- educational attainment
- linguistic isolation
- EJ/disproportionately impacted communities including tribes and other minorities
- economic status (poverty, low-income households)
- employment status (income/unemployment statistics)
- working/employer conditions
- energy cost burdens
Measuring impact
To measure the impact of a proposed permit or cleanup, a cumulative impacts analysis uses at least one of multiple quantitative, semiquantitative, or qualitative methods:
- impact threshold (quantitative) – a value below which impact is acceptable and above which adverse effects may occur.
- impact score or index (quantitative) – numeric scores assigned to single stressors/indicators or grouped stressors/indicators (i.e., indicator categories) based on predetermined criteria.
- impact scale (semiquantitative) – scale based on low, medium, high impact rankings. Impact scores or scales can also incorporate spatial and/or temporal information. For example, GIS-based screening tools may break up information based on various spatial boundaries such as census tracts, counties, watersheds, airsheds, etc.
- description of impacts (qualitative) – narrative based method. May be in the form of comments describing non-chemical stressors or unquantifiable indicators that are provided to supplement quantified chemical risks.
Community benefit agreements created with the community for the community
If the permitted facility imposes a substantial adverse impact on the environment or health of residents in an environmental justice area, it may have to enter into a community benefit agreement. These agreements, which the MPCA develops with community input and participation, typically require the company operating the facility to agree to specific defined benefits for the residents of the affected neighborhood. The cumulative impacts rulemaking will create a formal process for facilities and community members to participate in the creation of community benefit agreements.