The North Island Grid Upgrade Project (NIGUP) involved consultation and technical studies to select and designate a route for a 400Kv electricity transmission line from Whakamaru to South Auckland (some 200 km), estimated to cost $835 million to build.  Dialogue was responsible for the social impact assessment as well as the consultation design, analysis and reporting, assistance with publications and providing evidence to the Board of Inquiry on both the consultation and social impacts.

A critical first step in social impact assessment is the description of the

affected communities (see the discussion here about SIA principles).  This was done primarily by analysing Census data, using both single variable and multivariate analysis.  The latter was undertaken using Factor Analysis.  This provides a useful way of summarising large amounts of data (in this case the household and dwelling data from the 2006 Census).  It builds a picture by grouping many closely related attributes together into a small set of composite attributes (the “factors”).   These factors were then mapped for the meshblocks along the length of the line providing a clear picture of similarities and differences between areas.

The first factor comprised a range of variables related to material standard of living.  The meshblocks with high positive weightings tend to rate highly on such variables as including owning one’s dwelling, being employed full-time, having two motor vehicles and on being ethnically European and speaking English and no other language.  The second factor addresses variables related to degree of engagement in mainstream society. This reflects, in part recency of arrival in the country.  Higher weightings include such variables as renting property, speaking English and another language (not Maori) or neither English of Maori, being unemployed, and being born overseas.  Low weightings on this factor have a strong rural dimension including employment in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries, being self-employed, possibly with employees, and working at home (which includes the farm).

Mapping the meshblocks along the length of the line shows a strong variation within the northern-most section of the line and quite a distinct difference on both factors north and south of Mangatawhiri.

The assessment of social impacts focuses on the experiences (either direct

or anticipated) of individuals, families/households, or communities in response to changes induced by a project considering changes to:

1. people's way of life;
   

2. their culture;
   

3. their community;
   

4. their health and wellbeing; and
   

5. their fears and aspirations.
   

Impacts were assessed for three stages:

(1)during project planning/consultation;

(2)during implementation/construction; and

(3)during operation (with its associated maintenance activities).

The project was still in the planning stage when the analysis was done and had yet to receive permission to proceed.  The uncertainty that this generated meant that some effects had yet to be seen as people wait for the Board of Inquiry’s verdict on the project.  In some areas it was also difficult to sell properties in the face of this uncertainty so, apart from applications to purchase made to Transpower, it was impossible to assess the full effects of the line in terms of people leaving communities.

It was also Transpower’s intention to undertake construction of the line under a design and build contract.  This meant that there was no definitive information about the construction programme on which to assess potential effects.  It was possible, however, to comment in generic terms based on experience elsewhere and some preliminary scoping of possible construction programmes for both the underground and overhead sections.

As could be expected, in the planning phase the people affected by the

proposed line reacted in different ways to the announcement of the Upgrade Project, the choice of route, and the proposed alignment. The extent and type of impact was strongly influenced by personal and community characteristics and varied between communities along the overhead line, along the cable routes and in the vicinity of the substations.

The personal impacts of stress associated with anger, powerlessness and the sense of foregone opportunities, can be very powerful. These impacts can be compounded by people feeling compelled to take action, using valued time and other resources to engage with a proposal. However, public identification and consideration of alternatives are a fully embedded part of a modern society's considerations of major projects, and these effects are an inevitable and unavoidable consequence of the project development process.

The effects of the planning phase can be summarised as:

1. being either neutral or negative for those individuals and communities along the route from Otahuhu and Pakuranga in the north to Whakamaru in the south, with few people gaining any benefit. Those who may gain are those households where the proposed line diverges from the route of the existing ARI-PAK A line in Hunua and Whitford and the old line will be taken down. While a total of 297 properties are crossed by the alignment, there is a very large number of beneficiaries of the Upgrade Project in terms of secure electricity supply to the Upper North Island. The directly affected parties also benefit from increased network security;
   

2. the magnitude of the effects has varied along the route, but everywhere that the Upgrade Project has touched it has represented a significant disruption to people's lives. The area where a group of households potentially has the most significant new infrastructure is in the vicinity of the transition station/substation at 147 Brownhill Road, Whitford. Here, the potential effects have been significantly reduced, but not by any means eliminated, by the choice of GIS for the substation and consultation on the location of the substation on the site (tree clearance in photo has nothing to do with the project);
   

3. the use of the Area Corridor Route Easement (ACRE) process in

   

   developing the proposal greatly reduced the area of impact of the Upgrade Project over that which might have occurred if a more extensive approach to consultation was taken. This has been seen in other projects where large areas have been affected by "possible" routes through urban areas which were impractical, creating unwarranted stress.  The  process  adopted here  struck an appropriate balance between the exploration of options and number of people affected. Even with the more focused approach used here, in the Route(ii) phase the area of impact extended up to one kilometre wide along over 350 route kilometres (by exploring both west and east route options). The area of impact was significantly reduced with the selection of the west route in July 2005. Under the Amended Proposal the area of impact was later extended to include a new cable route between Brownhill Road, Whitford and the Pakuranga substation and the area surrounding the Pakuranga substation but there were strong strategic reasons to extend the area of coverage at this stage;
   
4. the most vulnerable community along the entire length of the two routes

   

   was that in the vicinity of the Otahuhu Substation and along the underground cable route as far as East Tamaki Road. The impact on this group was reduced by the decisions to put new equipment well inside the boundaries of the existing substation and the use of underground cable. Special steps were also taken to communicate details of the Upgrade Project to the local communities in the consultation programme by radio broadcasts in Pacific Island languages; and
   

5. there were severe constraints on the extent to which impacts of the planning phase could be mitigated for the affected communities (as distinct from the avoidance of impact achieved by the ACRE process if people from a wider area had been consulted) given the desirability to consult affected and interested parties. During the process, impacts have been mitigated in three ways. Firstly, by seeking to keep the decision-making period as short as possible while allowing appropriate time for people to understand the Upgrade Project and consider the implications for themselves, their families and communities. Secondly, by providing accurate and timely information about the project and its actual effects to those affected. Finally, by developing effective working relationships with individuals and groups, where this has been possible.
   

The construction phase will impact directly on landowners and land

users and will need to be carefully and positively managed in order to limit the potential social effects. This management is particularly the case given the seasonal nature of the farming operations which take place over much of the alignment, and which could give rise to practical issues and associated stress for some landowners.  From what was available on the proposed content of the Construction Management Plan when the assessment was undertaken, the development of Site Works Plans and the emphasis on stakeholder liaison as the initial step in the construction process, should provide the appropriate processes to minimise, if not eliminate, the social effects of the construction phase on individuals.

The construction phase may affect communities in both positive and negative ways. It could increase skills and provide more employment on at least a temporary basis (although downside aspects to this potentially positive effect are the high levels of employment at present, and the reported difficulty in obtaining farm workers, where the Upgrade Project may actually compete for labour), by temporarily stimulating local economics, and, negatively, by bringing an influx of new people into smaller communities, resulting in increased housing costs and strain on social services. Many, but not all potential effects, can be minimised through the provision and management of suitable housing and services.

The relatively small scale of the workforce, the use of an established group of riggers for the conductors with reportedly a good reputation for behaviour and the use of local contractors where possible, would both minimise the disruption to communities and result in income for companies based in the Waikato.

The decision not to have construction camps is also a critical factor in the

plans to minimise potential effects.  The integration of workers into local communities would also obviate fears usually raised over construction projects, including increased crime rates for both personal injury and property loss, anti-social behaviour by construction workers, higher birth rates and social tensions/divisions within the community. It is possible that the project workforce could create a need for medical services (especially emergency care), to which local communities may not be in a position to respond and for which there is no budget. Dispersal of the workers should however also limit this effect.

After the experiences of the planning stage and expectations for the construction phase, the social effects of the operation of the line with its associated substations are likely to be more modest and certainly more focused. Two factors are likely to contribute to this:

1. the natural turnover in the communities will result over time in an increasing proportion of people for whom the proposed line was there before they moved in; and
   

2. adaptation by residents to the existence of the proposed line over time as it moves from something to be resisted to part of the landscape.
   

This assessment is not to underestimate the potential for on-going stress and resentment over the presence of the proposed line, but it can be anticipated that the majority of people will eventually tend to either adapt and largely accept the Upgrade Project, or leave. Such effects may well depend on the management of the construction phase and whether individual and community issues are resolved then or left to fester.

Once constructed, any infrastructure like the proposed line is effectively part of the environment and is factored in to people's thinking about a location. The principal social effects of the line are experienced in the planning and construction phases and are typically addressed through compensation, mitigation, the changeover in population, and the acceptance of the reality of the existence of the line by those who remain.

It is not anticipated that the proposed line will have any significant

effects at the community level unless the concerns that fears about EMF do in fact result in significant reduction in school rolls at Hunua, Whitehall and Horahora. As a network utility maintained by contractors, the proposed line is unlikely to otherwise affect community cohesion, stability, character, services or facilities.

There are potentially a number of on-going issues in the operational phase in terms of nuisance effects related to the location of towers, and interactions with contractors. The latter were raised a number of times in the consultation and would appear to be a source of some aggravation for a number of landowners. Avoiding these will require more effective stakeholder engagement processes on the part of Transpower.

A copy of Peter Phillips’ evidence to the Board of Inquiry can be downloaded from here.