Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
public participation and risk communication (Portsmouth incinerator). In other cases,
practice appears to be somewhat in advance of existing legislative requirements—e.g. the
SEA of UK government plans for offshore wind energy development was undertaken
prior to the implementation of the EU SEA Directive. But the case studies also draw
attention to some of the practical difficulties encountered in EIA, and the limitations of
the process in practice. This reinforces some of the criticisms of UK EIA practice made
in Chapter 8.
The selected case studies are largely based on original research either by the authors or
by colleagues in the IAU at Oxford Brookes University (the exceptions are the power
station case study in Section 9.2, which was researched by William Sheate, Reader in
EIA at Imperial College, University of London, and published in 1995; the Cairngorm
mountain railway study in Section 9.6; and the Guinea refugees study in Section 9.9).
9.2 Wilton power station case study—project definition in EIA
9.2.1 Introduction
This case study, originally documented by Sheate (1995), illustrates the problems of
project definition in EIA, particularly in cases in which consent procedures for different
elements of an overall scheme are divided. The case highlights the failure of the EIA
process to fully assess the impacts of a proposed UK power station development. In
particular, the EIA process failed to identify prior to the power station consent decision
the environmental implications of the extensive electricity transmission lines required to
service the new development.
The case study highlights a basic problem within EIA for UK energy sector projects
caused by the splitting of consent procedures for electricity generation and transmission.
This situation arose after the privatization of the UK electricity supply industry by the
1989 Electricity Act. The case illustrates how the division of consent procedures for
individual components of the same overall project can result in conflicts with the EIA
Directive's requirement to assess the direct, indirect and secondary effects of
development projects. Although the case study relates to early EIA practice in the UK
and EU (in the early 1990s), the issues raised remain largely unresolved and are still
relevant to current practice.
9.2.2 The Wilton power station project
Early in 1991, newspaper reports began to identify the
environmental consequences of proposed high voltage
electricity transmission lines necessary to connect a new
power station on Teesside, North East England to the
National Grid system. To many, it was astonishing that
these impacts had not been identified at the time the power
station itself was proposed. Close inspection of the
environmental statement (ES) produced for the power
station revealed that such issues had barely been identified
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