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Environmental Science > Environmental Impact Assessment- Lecture 1. > Flashcards

Environmental Impact Assessment- Lecture 1. Flashcards

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1
Q

Define: Environmental Impact Assessment

A

It is a tool that seeks to ensure sustainable development through the evaluation of those impacts arising from a major activity (policy, plan, program, or project) that are likely to have significant environmental effects.

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2
Q

Summarise some recent UK policies supporting a greener and more sustainable economy.

A
  • £110 billion investment by 2020 in new energy infrastructure to support the transition to a low carbon economy.
  • £20 billion over the next five years to maintain and improve water supply.
  • £15 billion investment by 2020 to divert waste from landfill and generate more energy from waste
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3
Q

What are major developments requiring EIA?

A

Fracking
HS2
Heathrow

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4
Q

What are the Impacts of Great Barrier Reef Dredging?

A
  • Habitat loss
  • Damage of coral
  • Loss of biodiversity
  • Noise pollution
  • Construction Vs. Operational impacts!
  • Oil pollution
  • Loss of tourism
  • Shipping industry benefits
  • Mining
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5
Q

Who are the main stakeholders in the case of Great Barrier Reef Dredging?

A 
World Heritage Site- UNESCO
GVT
Agencies
Engineers
Indigenous 
Public
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6
Q

What are the mitigation methods that are used for the Great barrier reef dredging case?

A
  • Use dredging material to reconstruct new habitats
  • change pathway of dredging- avoid reef, pick more damaged areas
  • Avoid breeding seasons of fish, instead dredge when they are migrating
  • Avoid key fishery seasons, tourism seasons
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7
Q

What are the 5 guiding principles?

A
  • Live in planet’s environmental limits
  • Strong, healthy and just society
  • Promoting good governance
  • Achieving a sustainable economy
  • Using sound science responsibly
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8
Q

What does the term ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ describe?

A

A procedure that must be followed for certain types of project before they can be given ‘development consent’.

  • draws together an assessment of a projects likely significant environmental effects.
  • Ensures that the importance of predicted effects, and the scope for reducing them are properly understood by the public and the relevant authority before it makes its decision.
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9
Q

What are the processes involved in the EIA?

A 
Screening
Scoping
Preparing an environmental statement
Application and Consultation 
Decision Making
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10
Q

What is an Environmental Statement?

A

Compiled information required to assess the likely significant environmental effects of the development.
- public authorities must make relevant info available.

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11
Q

What does the EIA description include?

A

Must include a description of the likely significant effects of the development on the environment.
Covers:
- Direct effects and any indirect, secondary, cumulative, short, medium and long-term, permanent and temporary, positive and negative effects of the development.
This results from:
- The existence of the development
- The use of the development
- The use of natural resources
- The emission of pollutants, the creation of nuisances and the elimination of waste

Reporting should include:

  • Forecasting methods used for assessment.
  • Mitigation
  • Components of the environment
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12
Q

What is involved in application and consultation?

A

Findings submitted as part of planning application- LPA or National Planning Inspectorate.

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13
Q

Who produces the EIA?

A

The Developer / consultants working for the developer

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14
Q

Who gives opinions on screening, scoping, and the decision on planning permission?

A

Local planning authority or the Planning inspectorate.

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15
Q

Who are consulted?

A

Statutory consultees and the public?

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16
Q

What can the Secretary of State do?

A

Call in major developments and hold a public enquiry

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17
Q

What do the courts do?

A

Can call in major developments and hold a public enquiry

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18
Q

What is the UK approach?

A

Sophisticated planning system since 1947 Town and Country Planning Act.

Little provision for dealing with large projects: usually dealt with by the Secretary of State

EIA informal only.

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19
Q

What is the USA Approach?

NEPA, National Environmental Policy Act, 1969

A

Requires federal Agencies to:

  • use a systematic and interdisciplinary approach
  • develop procedures and methods so that unquanitified environmental amenities and values are given appropriate consideration

Include:

  • A detailed statements on e.g.
  • The environmental impacts of the proposals
  • Any adverse environmental effects
  • Alternatives
  • Irreversible commitments of resources
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20
Q

What are the USA NEPA Procedures?

A 
Screening 
Scoping 
ES
Non-technical summary 
Public consultation at all stages

All carried out by government agencies.

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21
Q

NEPA and the courts: WESTWAY

A

New York City’s proposed West Side Highway (six lanes, mostly below ground)
Included landfill on banks of Hudson River, road, parks and real estate development
$1.3 billion committed by Federal Government
Approval given at all levels, but……..

Initial approval (May 1980) delayed by air quality issues (carbon monoxide & particulates in tunnels)
Obstacles overturned by courts despite objections from NGOs and EPA
But then the fish intervened.
22
Q

How did the fish intervene at the WESTWAY project that slowed approval?

A

May 1984: the Army Corps of Engineers issued a draft environmental impact statement that said Westway landfill would have a “significant adverse impact” on striped bass.
The term ‘significant’ carried legal weight- the word was dropped but after lengthy court hearings …
…the Judge ruled that authorities had failed to comply with the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act
The project was never taken forward
EIA had teeth! Fish could beat roads, and the power of legal terms and of the courts had been demonstrated

23
Q

Briefly account for the Sierra Club, Highway 95.

A

Sierra Club, Highway 95:

  • Widening - $500m
  • Sierra club lawsuit questioning environmental impact.. Did the gvt take into account the health risks of pollutants?
  • Emissions study carried out in 2000 shows emissions affect health (LA)
  • 5 mile corridor to be widened near Las Vegas.
  • Sierra club claim gvt too quick to dismiss alternatives e.g. Rail system as ‘lacks market’

(Construction halted by court action).

24
Q

How did the EIA process develop?

A

1947- Town and Country Planning Act

1960s- cost-benefit approach to planning decisions

1970s- North Sea oil and gas first UK EIAs

1976- Government Report recommended changes to incorporate EIA into existing legislative system.

25
Q

What was the situation of EIA in 1980’s?

A

200+
Ad hoc basis
Many were deficient

26
Q

What was the 1985 Directive 85/337 1st Action Programme on the Environment?

A

Aims of preventing pollution or nuisance at source and taking account of environmental effects at the earliest possible stage in planning and decision making.

Also aim of level playing field across Europe and Prevention of long distance pollution (e.g. acid rain).

27
Q

When did the EIA come to Europe?

A

1988 EU Directive 85/337 implemented via Planning Regulations.

28
Q

What are some important differences across Europe?

A

Screening: confusing and subjective
Scoping: not mandatory in UK or Spain
Alternative proposals: only in Netherlands and Wallonia
Some omissions (e.g. nuclear power stations in UK)
EA not EIA.

29
Q

What was the EIA situation in 1990s?

A

> 300 per year
Limited public consultation
Local authorities underqualified
Many EISs unsatisfactory but improving

Poor quality statements led to delays

30
Q

What was the result of the revised directive produced in 1997?

A

1999 New UK regulations.

  • changes to screening
  • scoping introduced
  • trans-boundary effects- : Member States must now consult with other States if impacts are likely to have effects on them
  • Alternatives
  • Decision- making

Reasons for decision: The LPA or SoS must give the main reasons granting or refusing planning permission.
And…..since the 1999 revisions- the process has been known as “Environmental Impact Assessment

31
Q

Why are EIA’s fairly limited?

A
  • In 2004 planning authorities had limited practical experience of EIA.
  • A study by the Impacts Assessment Unit at Oxford Brookes University suggested that about 10% of planning authorities may never have undertaken screening to determine whether a proposed development requires environmental impact assessment
  • Around 50% of authorities may only have limited experience.
32
Q

What were the old regulations (1988) for schedule 1 and 2 developments?

A

Old regulations (1988):
Schedule 1 developments: EIA compulsory, e.g.
oil refineries, integrated chemical installations;
large power stations (heat output of >300MW), large airports & harbours. (Heavy industries).

Schedule 2 developments: EIA may be required
e.g. (from a huge list)
extractive industry (e.g. minerals, petroleum, gas, coal)
smaller power stations, food processing works, smaller livestock plants, holiday villages

Confusion over schedule 2 developments

33
Q

What are some examples of schedule 1?

A

23 categories in total

a) Inland waterways and ports for inland-waterway traffic which permit the passage of vessels of over 1,350 tonnes;
(b) Trading ports, piers for loading and unloading connected to land and outside ports (excluding ferry piers) which can take vessels of over 1,350 tonnes.
17. Installations for the intensive rearing of poultry or pigs with more than—
(a) 85,000 places for broilers or 60,000 places for hens;
(b) 3,000 places for production pigs (over 30 kg); or
(c) 900 places for sows.

34
Q

Describe schedule 2 developments?

A

13 categories, all with lengthy subcategories, including agriculture, extractive industry, energy, infrastructure, tourism and leisure

Some omissions- hospitals, shopping malls, education, defence activities, but list “not exhaustive” (see law notes later)
Use of thresholds could lead to ‘salami slicing’ developments
Decision is discretionary, with guidance

35
Q

Who makes the decision in schedule 2 developments?

A

LPA or SOS

36
Q

What is accompanied with a screening opinion?

A

EIA not compulsory- decision is made by local planning authority (LPA) or Secretary of State

A request for a screening opinion shall be accompanied by—

(a) a plan sufficient to identify the land;
(b) a brief description of the nature and purpose of the development and of its possible effects on the environment; and
(c) such other information or representations as the person making the request may wish to provide or make.

Decision from LPA required in three weeks

A ‘Screening Direction’ from SoS can be requested if deadline not met or if the developer thinks a requirement for EIA is not correct

37
Q

What are the 3 general criteria/ guidance for screening?

A

1 size: whether a project was of more than local importance in terms of scale
2 location: whether it was intended for a particularly sensitive area (e.g. SSSI or National Park)
3 nature: whether it will give rise to complex or adverse effects (e.g. pollution)
(See Schedule 3 of the 2011 Regulations for current details)

This is subjective or difficult to assess without the information an EIA would contain.
In the early years the problems were made more difficult by the lack of experience in EIA of many LPAs

38
Q

How was screening made clearer?

A

Processes and outputs

Thresholds

39
Q

What are the significant effects under ‘Processes and outputs’?

A

“Scheduled Processes” (for the purpose of air pollution control) will be operating

Discharges to water which require consent

The presence of ‘environmentally significant quantities of potentially hazardous or polluting substances’

Production of radioactive or other hazardous waste

The development falls under the COMAH Directive 96/82/EC (Control of Major Accident Hazards involving dangerous substances)

40
Q

What do thresholds allow?

A

Applicable Threshold: triggers examination if EIA needed

Criteria- helps decision makers if applicable threshold is exceeded

41
Q

Define: Scoping

A

“The process of scoping is that of determining, from all a project’s possible impacts and from all the alternatives that could be addressed, those that are key, significant ones” (Glasson, Therivel & Chadwick 1999).

The 1988 Regulations did not require a formal scoping process in the UK. This was in spite of the fact that scoping was widely held to be a vital stage in the EIA process.

42
Q

What are the advantages of Scoping?

A

Consultation at an early stage to save time & money, and to involve all stakeholder groups
Dealing principally with the key impacts during the main EIA process
Targeting of resources
Opportunities for changes to the project at an early stage

43
Q

What progress has been made in scoping?

A

The updated Regulations (1999, and updates since) allowed the developers to request a “formal (scoping) opinion on what should be included in the Environmental Statement” from the LPA, or, if they are unable to do so, the Secretary of State (SoS).

Within the scoping process the LPA (or the SoS) are formally required to consult with statutory consultees before giving their opinion within 5 weeks.

44
Q

Is scoping compulsory?

A

Not compulsory for developers to ask for a scoping opinion; but probably desirable
The planning authority must consult and respond rapidly (5 weeks)
Developers often provide a ‘scoping report’ for the planning authority to consider, before delivering a ‘scoping opinion’ back to the developer

45
Q

What are the scoping requirements?

A

The specific characteristics of the particular development
The specific characteristics of development of the type concerned
The environmental features likely to be affected by the development

46
Q

How has scoping requirements made a difference?

A

About 50% of projects involve a formal scoping opinion
18% involve a informal discussion
32% have no scoping stage
62% of developers requesting a scoping opinion submit a scoping report for consideration by the planning authority

47
Q

Disadvantages of Scoping?

A

The five week timescale is difficult for LPAs to meet –only 48% manage this
The work takes 3 person-days or less
Statutory consultees are sometimes slow to respond
67% of LPAs think that the quality of the EIA is improved by this process

48
Q

What were the minor changes made? Environmental Impact Assessment 2011?

A

Minor changes only, including:
Some additions to Schedules 1 and 2 (e.g. carbon capture
Right of third party appeal on screening decisions

49
Q

What is the new EU directive (2014)?

A

Will not be implemented until 2017
Changes to simplify the process (e.g. screening), raise quality & make it more accountable
Improvements to monitoring of significant effects and mitigation
environmental statements are renamed ‘EIA reports’ –

50
Q

What is the present situation with EIA’s?

A

Over 10,000 projects have been subject EIA in the UK
EIA operates in almost every country in the world
There are some issues to deal with- quality, finance, accountability…

Environmental Science (13 decks)

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