Environmental Impact Assessment - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 100

can and should be incorporated by reference. If this is done, care should be taken that the
documents referenced are reasonably available to any reviewer who wants to review them.
A well-written statement of the purpose and need for the project (not why the docu-
ment is prepared) lays the groundwork for a well-written, disciplined EIA document. It
is often possible to reduce the size of an EIA by taking special care in describing the alter-
natives in this initial statement of purpose and needs. It is normally the practice to compare
the impacts of the various alternatives in detail in the environmental impact section, and so
detailed comparisons of impacts may be avoided earlier in the report. One technique is to
use a summary table comparing the proposed project and its alternatives, referring to the
detailed discussions in the subsequent environmental impact section.
Because signii cant amounts of data are generally available on current conditions, there is
a tendency to 'load up' an EIA with such data simply because it is there. For example, most
weather stations measure a variety of climatic parameters, including temperature, rainfall,
wind speed and direction, relative, humidity, and solar radiation, all of which are usually
presented and discussed in the baseline section of the EIA. Yet, rarely if ever are the data
on solar radiation used in any of the subsequent impact assessments. There is a case there-
fore to include only that information which is used for impact assessment. One method that
seems to help is to limit the description of the affected environment to a relatively minor
discussion of where the proposed project is located plus general conditions in the area, and
to include specii c detailed information in the environmental impact section. In doing this,
care must be taken to not simply transfer the problem from one chapter to another.
The environmental impact section should focus attention on signii cant effects.
Elaborating on all mining-related effects with equal enthusiasm demonstrates poor judge-
ment, and loads the documentation with unnecessary verbal baggage.

Elaborating on all mining-related
effects with equal enthusiasm
demonstrates poor judgement.

CASE 2.7
The Agony of Preparing EIA Documents in Two Languages:
Translation from Original Text into English - Some Examples

'The natural forest is vegetated with mother plants that
grow naturally. Vegetation is located throughout the study area,
so its condition can be evaluated using a sample of vegetation
representing the class. On-site observation and sampling
shows that the forest seems to be already exploited by
people there. The level of disturbance to the forest depends
on people's activities or pressure on the forest. The forest
areas of cultivated dryland were recorded planted with cash
crops. This secondary/natural forest can be preserved as a
conservation area.'
'Thus, the impact occurs could be categorized as
unimportant negative impact in small category of
impact ( 2).'
'During operations of the alumina plant, the machines
could be considered to unite with operation of power plant.'
'Climate and meteorological data including: air tempera-
ture, relative humidity, wind (direction and speed), duration
of solar radiation and rainfall is generated from the clima-
tologic station of The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency
of Supadio Airport, Pontianak. The data on climate will be
collected and analyzed to determine:

…
The range and average of annual global warming;
…'
'Level of impact importance symbolized in notation P
(Important) and TP (unimportant) as follows:

Table VI-2: Notation of Level of impact importance
Notation of Level of impact importance

TP Unimportant

P Important

Admittedly, the later examples highlight another challenge -
a lack of national expertise in the host country, a common
problem in developing countries.

'Mathematic model results can be modifi ed into either a 1
or 2 dimensional graphic. This graphic results from overlay
into a thematic map so that dimensions of impact distri-
bution can be determined with concentration or intensity
contour degradation. The limit of signifi cant impacts could
be determined if Environmental Standards, or environmen-
tal tolerance limits according to similar types of references
results or literature references, have been set-up.'