Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project, such as a renewable energy generation project, prior to decision-making. It aims to predict environmental impacts at an early stage in project planning and design, find ways and means to reduce adverse impacts, shape projects to suit the local environment and present the predictions and options to decision-makers. By using EIA both environmental and economic benefits can be achieved, such as reduced cost and time of project implementation and design, avoided treatment/clean-up costs and impacts of laws and regulations.

What are the Immeidiate and Long Term Objectives of EIA?

Immeidiate Objectives:

• improve the environmental design of the proposal;
• check the environmental acceptability of the proposals compared to the capacity of the site and the receiving environment;
• ensure that resources are used appropriately and efficiently;
• identify appropriate measures for mitigating the potential impacts of the proposal; and
• facilitate informed decision making, including setting the environmental terms and conditions for implementing the proposal.

Long Term Objectives:

• avoid irreversible changes and serious damage to the environment;
• safeguard valuable resources, natural areas and ecosystem components;
• enhance the social aspects of proposals; and
• protect human health and safety ¹.

Key Stages of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Screening

Screening is carried out in order to determine whether or not a development project proposal will require an EIA. Directive 85/337/EEC lists a number of selection criteria that should be taken into consideration when screening a development project proposal for EIA. These include: development characteristics; characteristics of location; characteristics of potential effects.

Scoping

Key issues that the EIA will address are identified during the scoping stage. Such issues that are identified in the majority of EIA include: landscape and visual; ecology; land-use; traffic and transport; air quality; noise; water; ground conditions; archaeology; cultural heritage.

A good scoping process will involve: consultation with relevant stakeholders and interested parties to provide them with information on the development proposal and what technically appear to be the key issues and to find out what their key concerns are regarding the location and the development proposal; analysis of the issues identified during consultation to determine which are likely to be significant and therefore must be included within the scope of the EIA; and, negotiation with the decision makers and other interested parties to refine the scope of the EIA ².

Impact Analysis

In order to identify and analyse the likely impacts of a development project proposal, the baseline environmental conditions must be established. This can be done by either using already existing information or collecting new information. Impact analysis involves characterising the impact in terms of its likely nature, spatial and temporal distribution, duration, frequency, reversibility and magnitude; a judgement must then be made as to whether the impact is likely to be significant or not ³.

Mitigation

Impact analysis will identify a number of significant environmental impacts relating to a project development. This stage of EIA aims to put in place mitigation measures in order toavoid, reduce and if possible reverse them.

Environmental Statement (ES)

The environmental statement is the vehicle used to communicate the results of the EIA to the decision maker and other stakeholders in the development process. By law the ES must contain at least: a description of the project comprising information on the site, design and size of the project; a description of the measures envisaged in order to avoid, reduce and, if possible, remedy significant adverse impacts; the data required to identify and assess the main effects which the project is likely to have on the environment; an outline of the main alternatives studied by the developer and an indication of the main reasons for this choice, taking into account the environmental effects; and, a non technical summary of the information mentioned in previous bullet points.

Decision Making

This is the stage in the process where the project development is either granted development consent or not. It is necessary at this stage for the environmental statement to be made available to a number of statutory consultees, the public and other stakeholders.

References:

[1] IEMA, 2009. Envrionmental Impact Assessment (EIA) e-brief.

[2] IEMA, 2009. Envrionmental Impact Assessment (EIA) e-brief.

[3] IEMA, 2009. Envrionmental Impact Assessment (EIA) e-brief.