Monitoring and auditing: after the decision - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 201

Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power stations, proposals were often made for
monitoring air emissions, air quality and construction
Table 7.1 Types of impact monitoring in UK EISs

Type % of total monitoring proposals

Water quality 16

Air emissions 15

Aqueous emissions 13

Noise 12

General 9

Others 7

Ecological 7

Archaeological 6

Air quality 5

Structural survey 4

Liaison group 3

Water levels 3

100

( Source: Glasson 1994.)

noise; for landfill projects, the proposals were skewed towards the monitoring of
leachate, landfill gas and water quality.
The practice analysis used a small representative sample of 17 projects, with EIS
monitoring proposals, which had started. The LPAs were contacted to clarify monitoring
arrangements including, for example, whether monitoring arrangements had been made
operational under the terms of various consents (e.g. planning conditions, S106
agreements, Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) conditions, site licence conditions) or
whether monitoring was being carried out voluntarily. The findings revealed that overall
EISs tended to understate, on average by about 30 per cent, the amount of monitoring
actually undertaken. This may be a response to planning conditions and agreements
resulting from the decision-making process; it may also relate to other relevant licensing
procedures, such as IPC. Whatever the case, the findings do suggest that monitoring
proposals in EISs are carried out and are often more extensive than the, admittedly often
limited, coverage in EIAs. The findings do not, of course, provide any information on the
quality of the monitoring or about the accuracy of the predictions.