Southwest Environmental - Environmental Imapct Assessments (EIA)

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Environmental Impact Assessment

We can help by assembling information for Environmental Impact Assessments which are often needed for planning applications. EIA is a procedure that must be followed for certain types of development before they are granted development consent. The product of EIA is an Environmental Statement that is submitted to local authorities.

The requirement for EIA comes from a European Directive (85/33/EEC as amended by 97/11/EC). The procedure requires the developer to compile an Environmental Statement (ES) describing the likely significant effects of the development on the environment and proposed mitigation measures. The ES must be circulated to statutory consultation bodies and made available to the public for comment. Its contents, together with any comments, must be taken into account by the competent authority (eg local planning authority) before it may grant consent.

There are seven key areas that an EIA focuses on:

1. Description of the project

Description of actual project and site description
Break the project down into its key components, ie construction, operations, decommissioning
For each component list all of the sources of environmental disturbance
For each component all the inputs and outputs must be listed, eg, air pollution, noise, hydrology

2. Alternatives that have been considered

Examine alternatives that have been considered
Example: in a biomass power station, will the fuel be sourced locally or nationally?

3. Description of the environment

List of all aspects of the environment that may be effected by the development
Example: populations, fauna, flora, air, soil, water, humans, landscape, cultural heritage
This section is best carried out with the help of local experts, eg the RSPB in the UK

4. Description of the significant effects on the environment

The word significant is crucial here as the definition can vary
'Significant' needs to be defined
The most frequent method used here is use of the Leopold matrix
The matrix is a tool used in the systematic examination of potential interactions
Example: in a wind farm development a significant impact may be collisions with birds

5. Mitigation

This is where EIA is most useful
Once section 4 has been completed it will be obvious where the impacts will be greatest
Using this information ways to avoid negative impacts should be developed
Best working with the developer with this section as they know the project best
Using the wind farm example again construction could be out of bird nesting seasons

6. Non-technical summary (EIS)

The EIA will be in the public domain and be used in the decision making process
It is important that the information is available to the public
This section is a summary that does not include jargon or complicated diagrams
It should be understood by the informed lay-person

7. Lack of know-how/technical difficulties

This section is to advise any areas of weakness in knowledge
It can be used to focus areas of future research
Some developers see the EIA as a starting block for good environmental management

Environmental Impact Assessment News

Ethiopian Dam Impact Assessment "Fatally Flawed"

The corporation also short-circuited the environmental and social impact assessment (EIA) process. Instead the study - which gave the project a clean bill of health - was published two years after construction began.

One of the project's staunchest critics, Kenyan ecologist Richard Leakey, suspects the study was produced with one aim in mind.

He said: "The scientists that I've shown [the EIA] to - some of whom have worked in Ethiopia for years and may have even advised the Ethiopian government at some point - suggest it is fatally flawed in terms of its logic, in terms of its thoroughness, in terms of its conclusions.