Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Equator Banks require
compliance with Equator
Principles as well as local
regulations.
Mining projects that are partly funded by IFC, the private investment arm of the World
Bank, must be implemented according to the administrative and legislative procedures of
the host country as well as in accordance with applicable IFC directives. In the same way,
the Equator Banks require compliance with Equator Principles as well as local regulations.
Finally, most international mining companies have developed their own corporate poli-
cies and codes of practice with which all mining activities within the group have to com-
ply. In some cases these go beyond the requirements of regulatory and i nancial agencies.
Establish the Environmental Baseline
An environmental impact assessment study starts with the collection of background infor-
mation on relevant physical/chemical, ecological, demographic, socio-cultural, and eco-
nomic conditions of the host region (often simply termed 'the baseline'). Baseline data
form the basis of describing the existing environmental setting with which the mine will
interact. As its derivation suggests, the term environment is always a relative one, mean-
ing 'surroundings'. An environment is the environment of 'somebody' or of 'something'.
Hence there is no such thing as a single environment. The environment of the mine is the
area in which it operates, and the features of that area that affect the mine in some way,
providing sources of mineral resources and environmental and social challenges. Strictly
speaking the mine and the host community do not have identical environments because
each is part of the other's. Less strictly speaking they can be said to share an environment
because most of the features of the area affect each of them in similar ways.
This, however, is the cause of much of the controversy that surrounds mining. To speak of
an environment in this way is to speak of it as a set of resources. That is to emphasize one side
of a two-way relationship. The other side is the impact that the mine has on the environments
of people and other living things in the host region. Hence, which the environmental baseline
do we establish during the EIA process - the environment of the mine or the environment
of the communities living in the mine area? This differentiation is important since what
improves the locality in terms of the environment of the mine, may spoil the environment
of the host community, or any other living thing in the host region. The answer is to address
both environments. Firstly, the EIA practitioner has to be concerned with the environment
of the people and the living things in the host regions, and the effects of mining upon their
environment. Secondly, she has to consider the environmental features or resources that have
the potential to affect mine development, both negatively as well as positively.
Once established, the baseline describes the no-action or zero alternative, against which
the mining project is assessed. As mentioned earlier there must be the consideration of
What improves the locality in
terms of the environment of the
mine, may spoil the environment
of the host community.
Waste Rock
CASE 2.5
Indonesian Government Regulation No. 19 of 1994
Geomembrane
Drainage Collection System
Geomembrane
Indonesian Government Regulation No. 19
of 1994, concerning hazardous and toxic
waste management and now superseded
with new regulations, serves as a case in
point for too-stringent national regulation.
The regulation categorized overburden and
tailings indiscriminately as hazardous waste,
requiring overburden and tailings placement
areas to be designed to the same stringent
standards as a hazardous and toxic waste
landfi ll. The regulation, if strictly enforced,
would have basically precluded mining.
Natural Soil
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