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Environmental Impact Assessment, Unit 1 : Introduction, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process of evaluating, the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or, development, taking into account inter-related socio- economic,, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial and adverse., UNEP defines Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a tool, used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a, 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 decisionmakers., Environment Impact Assessment in India is statutorily backed by the, Environment Protection Act, 1986 which contains various, provisions on EIA methodology and process., Evolution & History of EIA, EIA is termed as one of the best policy innovations in the 1900s. The main aim of, EIA is to conserve the environment and bring out the best combination of, economic and environmental costs and benefits., 1., 2., 3., , 4., , 5., , The birth of EIA is dated back to 1970s. In 1969, The USA had brought, its first National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) 1969., The EIA was initially practiced by developed nations but slowly it, was also introduced in developing nations including India., Columbia and the Philippines are the earliest examples of developing, nations who introduced EIA in their policies. Columbia brought it in 1974, while Philippines in 1978., Worldwide, EIA is now practiced in more than 100 countries. By the, mid-1990s, some 110 countries applied EIA as a major environmental, policy., In 1989, EIA was adopted as the major development project by the World, Bank.

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Initial environmental examination:, 1. Identifying, predicting, and evaluating economic, environmental, and, social impacts of development activities., 2., , Providing information on the environmental consequences for decision, making., , 3., , Promoting environmentally sound and suitable development by identifying, appropriate alternatives and mitigation measures

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NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT STUDIES, Economic, social and environmental change is inherent to, development. Whilst development aims to bring about positive change it can, lead to conflicts. In the past, the promotion of economic growth as the motor, for increased well-being was the main development thrust with little, sensitivity to adverse social or environmental impacts. The need to avoid, adverse impacts and to ensure long term benefits led to the concept of, sustainability. This has become accepted as an essential feature of, development if the aim of increased well-being and greater equity in fulfilling, basic needs is to be met for this and future generations., In order to predict environmental impacts of any development activity, and to provide an opportunity to mitigate against negative impacts and, enhance positive impacts, the environmental impact assessment (EIA), procedure was developed in the 1970s., An EIA may be defined as: A formal process to predict the, environmental consequences of human development activities and to plan, appropriate measures to eliminate or reduce adverse effects and to augment, positive effects., EIA thus has three main functions:, • To predict problems, • To find ways to avoid them, • To enhance positive effects, , The third function is of particular importance. The EIA provides a unique, opportunity to demonstrate ways in which the environment may be improved, as part of the development process. The EIA also predicts the conflicts and, constraints between the proposed project, programme or sectoral plan and its, environment. It provides an opportunity for mitigation measures to be, incorporated to minimize problems. It enables monitoring programmes to be, established to assess future impacts and provide data on which managers can, take informed decisions to avoid environmental damage.

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EIA is a management tool for planners and decision makers and complements, other project studies on engineering and economics. Environmental, assessment is now accepted as an essential part of development planning and, management. It should become as familiar and important as economic, analysis in project evaluation., The aim of any EIA should be to facilitate sustainable development., Beneficial environmental effects are maximized while adverse effects are, ameliorated or avoided to the greatest extent possible. EIA will help select, and design projects, programmes or plans with long term viability and, therefore improve cost effectiveness., It is important that an EIA is not just considered as part of the approval, process. Volumes of reports produced for such a purpose, which are neither, read nor acted upon, will devalue the process. A key output of the EIA should, be an action plan to be followed during implementation and after, implementation during the monitoring phase. To enable the action plan to be, effective the EIA may also recommend changes to laws and institutional, structures., Initially EIA was seen by some project promoters as a constraint to, development but this view is gradually disappearing. It can, however, be a, useful constraint to unsustainable development. It is now well understood that, environment and development are complementary and interdependent and, EIA is a technique for ensuring that the two are mutually reinforcing., Irrigated agriculture is crucial to the economy, health and welfare of a very, large part of the developing world. It is too important to be marginalized as it, is vital for world food security. However, irrigated agriculture often radically, changes land use and is a major consumer of freshwater. Irrigation, development thus has a major impact on the environment. All new irrigation, and drainage development results in some form of degradation. It is necessary, to determine the acceptable level and to compensate for the degradation. This, degradation may extend both upstream and downstream of the irrigated area., The impacts may be both to the natural, physical environment and to the, human environment. All major donors consider large irrigation and drainage, developments to be environmentally sensitive.

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An EIA is concerned both with impacts of irrigation and drainage on the, environment and with the sustainability of irrigation and drainage itself., Clearly an EIA will not resolve all problems. There will be trade-offs, between economic development and environmental protection as in all, development activities. However, without an objective EIA, informed, decision making would be impossible., ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIS), , An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States, environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental, Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions significantly affecting the quality of, the human environment. An EIS is a tool for decision making. It describes the, positive and negative environmental effects of a proposed action, and it, usually also lists one or more alternative actions that may be chosen instead, of the action described in the EIS. Several U.S. state governments require that, a document similar to an EIS be submitted to the state for certain actions., STEPS, Scoping: The first meetings are held to discuss existing laws, the available, information, and the research needed. The tasks are divided up and a lead, group is selected. Decision makers and all those involved with the project can, attend the meetings., Notice: The public is notified that the agency is preparing an EIS. The, agency also provides the public with information regarding how they can, become involved in the process. The agency announces its project proposal, with a notice in the Federal Register, notices in local media, and letters to, citizens and groups that it knows are likely to be interested. Citizens and, groups are welcome to send in comments helping the agency identify the, issues it must address in the EIS (or EA)., Draft EIS (DEIS): Based on both agency expertise and issues raised by the, public, the agency prepares a Draft EIS with a full description of the affected

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environment, a reasonable range of alternatives, and an analysis of the, impacts of each alternative., Comment: Affected individuals then have the opportunity to provide, feedback through written and public hearing statements., Final EIS (FEIS) and Proposed Action: Based on the comments on the, Draft EIS, the agency writes a Final EIS, and announces its Proposed Action., The public is not invited to comment on this, but if they are still unhappy, or, feel that the agency has missed a major issue, they may protest the EIS to the, Director of the agency. The Director may either ask the agency to revise the, EIS, or explain to the protester why their complaints are not actually taken, care of., Re-evaluation:, Prepared following an approved FEIS or ROD when unforeseen changes to the, proposed action or its impacts occurs, or when a substantial period of time has, passed between approval of an action and the planned start of said action. Based on, the significance of the changes, three outcomes may result from a re-evaluation, report: (1) the action may proceed with no substantive changes to the FEIS, (2), significant impacts are expected with the change that can be adequately addressed, in a Supplemental EIS (SEIS), or (3) the circumstances force a complete change in, the nature and scope of the proposed action, thereby voiding the pre-existing FEIS, (and ROD, if applicable), requiring the lead agency to restart the NEPA process, and prepare a new EIS to encompass the changes., Supplemental EIS (SEIS):, Typically prepared after either a Final EIS or Record of Decision has been, issued and new environmental impacts that were not considered in the, original EIS are discovered, requiring the lead agency to re-evaluate its initial, decision and consider new alternatives to avoid or mitigate the new impacts., Supplemental EISs are also prepared when the size and scope of a federal, action changes, when a significant period of time has lapsed since the FEIS, was completed to account for changes in the surrounding environment during, that time, or when all of the proposed alternatives in an EIS are deemed to

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have unacceptable environmental impacts and new alternatives are proposed., Record of Decision (ROD):, Once all the protests are resolved the agency issues a Record of Decision, which is its final action prior to implementation. If members of the public are, still dissatisfied with the outcome, they may sue the agency in Federal court., Often, the agencies responsible for preparing an EA or EIS do not compile, the document directly, but outsource this work to private-sector consulting, firms with expertise in the proposed action and its anticipated effects on the, environment. Because of the intense level of detail required in analyzing the, alternatives presented in an EIS or EA, such documents may take years or, even decades to compile, and often compose of multiple volumes that can be, thousands to tens of thousands of pages in length., To avoid potential conflicts in securing required permits and approvals after, the ROD is issued, the lead agency will often coordinate with stakeholders at, all levels, and resolve any conflicts to the greatest extent possible during the, EIS process. Proceeding in this fashion helps avoid interagency conflicts and, potential lawsuits after the lead agency reaches its decision., CAPABILITIES OF EIA, The capabilities of an EIA are listed below:, An EIA is capable of establishing baseline data (concerning social, physical and, biological parameters) before starting any development activity, , An EIA enables the government and public at large to evaluate the benefits of, the project versus the environmental degradation or modification, , An EIA also enforces regular monitoring to ensure that the project is not, damaging the environment beyond repair, , An EIA is capable of informing the public at large regarding any development, activity in an environmentally sensitive area thereby causing public outcry enabling, the government to terminate any project with vested interests that damages the, livelihood of people (tribes sustaining on the environment)., , ,  An EIA guides the project proponent to study the environment and propose, , the needed modifications to mitigate the adverse effects of any development, activity

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LIMITATIONS OF EIA, EIA suffers from the following limitations, EIA should be undertaken at the project level but it is undertaken at the policy and, planning level, , Range of project alternatives inthe project EIA is small, , There is no defined criteria to determine what type of projects undergo an EIA, thereby requiring unnecessary expenditure and delay, , Lack of comprehensive environment information base, limitation of time,, manpower and financial resources, , More research and development of improved methodologies is required to, overcome limitations related to uncertainities in data, , EIA reports are extremely academic, bureaucratic and lengthy containing too many, tables of collected data without data analysis, interpretation and environmental, implications, , In actual practice, EIA ends immediately after project clearance and no follow-up, action is taken, , It does not incorporate strategies of preventing environmental intervention., , Project EIAs are limited to the projects direct impacts and this leads to ignoring, wide range of impacts including:, o, Cumulative impacts, o, Global impacts, o, Indirect, secondary or induced impacts, , , o, , Synergistic impacts, , EIA LEGAL, POLICY & INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK:, EIA takes place within the legal and/or policy and institutional frameworks, established by individual countries and international agencies. EIA provision, and procedure can contribute to successful implementation of project if, these frameworks are adhered to., EIA in international environmental law context Key Multilateral, Environmental Agreements (MEAs) have seen review and improvements in, EIA legal, policy and institutional arrangements. The key agreements are, discussed below., a) Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans-boundary, Context (Espoo, 1991). This is the first multi-lateral EIA treaty. It looks at EIA, in a trans-boundary context and entered into force in 1997. The Espoo, Convention sets out the obligations of Parties to assess the environmental, impact of certain activities at an early stage of planning. It also lays down, the general obligation of states to notify and consult each other on all major

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projects under consideration that are likely to have a significant adverse, environmental impact across borders. Apart from stipulating responsibility, of signatory countries with regards to proposals that have transboundary, impacts, it describes the principles, provisions, procedures to be followed, and list of activities, contents of documentation and criteria of significance, that apply., b) Rio Declaration (1992). Principle 17 of Rio Declaration on Environment, and Development calls for use of EIA as a national decision making, instrument to be used in assessing whether proposed activities are likely to, have significant adverse impact on the environment. It also emphasized the, role of competent national authority in the decision making process. The, other principle (15) of this declaration that is relevant to EIA practice is the, application of the precautionary principle., Agenda 21, which was also as a result of this convention, proposes that, governments should:, “Promote the development of appropriate methodologies for making, integrated energy, environment and economic policy decisions for, sustainable development, inter alia, through environmental impact, assessment, Develop, improve and apply environmental impacts assessment, to foster, sustainable industrial development, Carry out investment analysis and feasibility studies including environmental, assessments for establishing forest based processing enterprises., Introduce appropriate EIA procedures for proposed projects likely to have, significant impacts upon biological diversity, providing for suitable, information to be made widely, Achieng Ogola available and for public participation, where appropriate, and, encourage the assessment of impacts of relevant policies and programs on, biological diversity (15.5(k)”(UNICED 1992)., Agenda 21 sets the framework within which countries can establish their, national environmental laws., c) UN Convention on climate change and Biological Diversity (1992) cited EIA, as an implementing mechanism of these conventions, d) Doha Ministerial Declaration encourages countries to share expertise and, experience with members wishing to perform environmental reviews at the, national level (November, 2001). e) UNECE (Aarhus) Convention on Access

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to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice, in Environmental Matters (1998) covers the decisions at the level of projects, and plans, programs and policies and by extension, applies to EIA and SEA. f), United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm 1972., Types of EIA :, Project-level EIA: narrow-perspective; examine potential, environmental impacts of a single project or activity, Cumulative effects assessment (CEA): broadens assessment to, examine potential impacts of multiple projects from the viewpoint of, valued environmental components (VECs), Strategic environmental assessment (SEA): widest focus involving, systematic evaluation of potential impacts of policies, plans and, programs (PPP) EIA Procedures and Decision Making