Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter Nine details the various methods commonly applied to quantifying impacts.
Since potential impacts of a large mine development are complex and varied, it is common
to simplify the impact analysis by dividing the mining project into various activities and the
environment into different components. Activities and their potential interrelationships to
individual environmental components are studied separately. It becomes clear that senior
stewardship is needed to understand individual sub-studies as parts of an overall picture, and
to eventually integrate these efforts in a coherent manner. It is fair to say that the quality of
an environmental impact assessment depends largely on the quality of the team leader.
The quality of an environmental
impact assessment depends
largely on the quality of the team
leader.
Develop an Environmental Action Plan
The identii cation of signii cant positive or negative impacts is meaningless without the
development of measures to avoid or minimize damage and to optimize the contribution
of the mining project to sustainable development. In this respect it is important that the
Environmental Action Plan (EAP) is operational and covers the physical and biological envi-
ronment, as well as the social environment, as elaborated in more detail in Chapter Ten.
Having a plan, however, is not sufi cient. The Equator Principles require identii cation
of the people who will be responsible for the implementation of impact avoidance or miti-
gation measures and that sufi cient funding be allocated for environmental management.
Companies need to establish an environmental management system that supports success-
ful implementation of the EAP (IFC 2006).
Management is incomplete without a mechanism to monitor management success
and redirecting management efforts if necessary. Environmental monitoring is neces-
sary to support effective environmental management. Monitoring is intended to evaluate
the effectiveness of adopted operations and management. Monitoring also provides an
early warning if mitigation measures are unsuccessful or, alternatively, monitoring helps
to verify that expected environmental targets are met. Data collected in an on-going moni-
toring programme facilitates the detection of trends and the determination of whether a
particular value is within the normal range for a specii c site.
The establishment of appropriate indicators for gauging environmental and social
impacts is essential; indicators that are measured will be considered important, while those
that are not measured are likely to remain relatively unnoticed.
Environmental and social impacts require monitoring not only at the project site, but in the
downstream environment, and in adjacent areas and communities. Monitoring should also
include reference or control areas and communities unaffected by mine activities. Monitoring
the development of a nearby community that has a similar social and economic setting, but is
unaffected by the mine enables the documentation of changes over time that occur naturally
in the absence of the project. This facilitates evaluation of the success of community develop-
ment programmes for communities that are directly affected by and benei t from the mine
activity. Monitoring should be carried out at an agreed-upon frequency until mine closure is
completed. Reduced post-mining monitoring will demonstrate the effectiveness of mine clo-
sure measures. Similar to the management plan, the monitoring plan is a dynamic document
and parameters, frequency, and locations will change over the life of the mine.
Monitoring should also include
reference or control areas and
communities unaffected by mine
activities.
2.7 DOCUMENTING THE FINDINGS
Much can be said about the quality of EIA documentation, or the lack of it. Why bother?
Firstly, the EIA documentation is an important instrument for mine approval. In most
 
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