Ecological Impact Assessment (EIA) PDF

Ecological Impact Assessment (EIA) - Development is any new type of infrastructure — buildings, mining etc - An EIA is a formalized process for considering the impact of a proposed development project - To do this: must assess current conditions and likely impacts...

Ecological Impact Assessment (EIA) - Development is any new type of infrastructure — buildings, mining etc - An EIA is a formalized process for considering the impact of a proposed development project - To do this: must assess current conditions and likely impacts - Propose strategies to mitigate negative effects - 3 major goals of EIAs - Does the proposed project meet env legislative requirements? - Is it environmentally acceptable? - Are environmental impacts appropriately minimized? - Brief history - Assessments exist in over 140 countries - US created the first - NEPA - national environmental policy act - Credit Rachel Carson (silent spring, 1962) fro NEPA which was 1969 - Named differently in different countries, federal agencies assess effects BEFORE starting project - In US, we have Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) - Est. by NEPA - Coordinates fed env efforts in conjunction with White House and other agencies - Oversees implementation of EIAs - Act as referee between agencies during disputes - Chair Branda Mallory also serves as a Presidential advisor - What projects need an EIA? - ALWAYS– big env impact (mining, large developments) - Exclusions– no potential for significant enc impact - Gray area– screened for potential risks to see if EIA is necessary - Screening: - Characteristics - Size - Use of resources - Amount and type of waste produced - Site: - Land already in use? - Environmental sensitivity - Surrounding land use - Potential impact - Severity and probability of impact - Magnitude (geographical extent) - EIA receptors - General (scoping) - For each receptor → specific receptor (survey determines which) - EIA receptors - Figure out what kinds of studies will be needed - Abiotic parameters - Soil, aur, water - landscape/ ecology - Visual intrusion, ecology - Emissions - Waste, pollution, GHGs - Material assets - Heritage, archeology - Population - Economy, infrastructure, employment, noise pollution - WE FOCUS ON ECOLOGY RECEPTOR - Changes name from Ecological Impact Assessment to Ecological Risk Assessment - EcIA - Evaluates likelihood that adverse ecological effects may occur or are occurring as a result of exposure to one or more chemical, physical, or biological stressors - Not required if no ecological impacts are expected - Considered for almost every EIA - Stages of EcIA - Baseline, secondary data - NEPAssist - Primary data collection (the stuff you take yourself) - Looking at presence of broad taxonomic groups - Ex: point counts for birds; semi-quantitative vegetative study (DAFOR etc) - Determine what follow up studies are necessary - Further specific receptors — detailed follow ups! - Habitat receptors - Condition, type, fragmentation, corridors and connectivity - Flora-based receptors - Presence of plants - Fauna-based receptors - Presence of animals - Process-based receptors - Pollination, seed dispersal, symbiotic relationships - Defining ecological value  - Site value - Statutory designation (state/ national park; wildlife refuge) - Habitat heterogeneity - High species richness = higher value - High percentage of individuals of a species at location (> 1% of population, can be nationally or internationally) - Social value - Public can have connection to specific site, this often correlates to high biodiversity and high habitat heterogeneity - Habitat value - Habitat is rare (national or international) - Habitat declining or vulnerable - Highly specialized or restricted location - Diffcult to recreate - Such as an ancient forest - Useful to humans - Such as wetlands for flood control - Species value - Legal protection (international, federal, state) - Rare (IUCN conservation status) - IUCN: international union for the conservation of nature - Ecosystem engineers - Such as beavers, which are not rare but are incredibly important - Economically important - Non-native species (how should we manage them during development) - For example, if there are asian clams we need to make sure development won’t spread them even more - Ecosystem service value - Combination of site, habitat, and species values → processes/ services that benefit humans - Like wetlands again - Pollination, water filtration, carbon sequestration, etc - Assessing likely impacts of project (a lot of prediction) - Construction impact - Operation impact - Decommissioning impact - Often a project has a full life cycle that includes decomissioning and regeneration of the site  - Example: a mine has a given life span, used until it is “dry”, it will then be decommissioned and go through a regeneration process where it “goes back to being natural” - Regeneration impact - Types of Impact - Direct: pumping waste from a powerplant - Indirect: waste water has polluted river and now it has too many nutrients, causing HABs - Cumulative effect: exceeding a certain threshhold - Example: thermal pollution is okay at small amount in large bodies of water, but cumulative impact, increased thermal pollution will have a BIG impact - Ecological benefits– positive impact! - brownfield/ superfund sites need remediation before project can proceed - EX: SG hall! Was a brownfield site that was cleaned up before it could be built - Benefits of remediation > developmental impacts - Magnitude - How much area is being impacted (spatial scale - Importance - Severity of impact and ecological importance - Both magnitude and importance use scales ranging negligible extremely important - Its worse to impact a rare, specialized habitat just a little bit then to have a greater impact on a common habitat - Predicting impact - Complex - High level of uncertainty - Depends on resilience - Methods for predicting - Best guess based on ecological knowledge (expert opinion) - Based on peer-reviewed literature - Previous projects and follow-up monitoring - Hard to gain access and very uncommon to do post-construction survey - No central repository monitoring if undertaken - Modeling approaches - Tend to be inaccurate - Leopold matrix – spatial magnitude of impact, importance (endangered species etc) - Magnitude 1-10 - Top corner - Importance 1-10 - Bottom corner - Negative numbers show negative impact and vice versa  - Site clearance phase - Building phase - Operational phase - Once potential negative impacts identified, find ways to eliminate, reduce, or buffer impacts - This is MITIGATION: reduce negative impacts before they happen - Avoid: prevent all or most of development from starting - Reduce: minimizing impacts - Contain: keeping in localized space - Rescue - Remediate: removal and recovery from problems - Spatial approaches: alternate sites, altering movement patterns - Temporal approaches: altering time of development - Spawning season - Altering proposed development - Design/ construction changes - Translocations: moving species off-site, can also translocate some habitats - Controversial - Compensation: making up for loss or permanent damage to biological resources through provision of replacement areas - Carbon offsets - Outcomes of EcIA - Granted– usually with conditions - Impact / mitigation monitoring after - Withheld– pending mitigation measures - Withheld– pending alternative sites - Denied– impact too high or mitigation insufficient