Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
require specific and detailed analysis. Also if scoping has identified the poten-
tial for soil contamination, the need for detailed and thorough environmental
analysis of soils may be required. Thus a goal of scoping is to pick the brains
of stakeholders to learn which resources might be at risk and which should
receive less attention in the environmental analysis.
The existing condition of a resource can be evaluated at a level of detail com-
mensurate with the magnitude of the proposed action and susceptibility of the
resource to impact, and scoping can provide valuable input in making this deter-
mination. In some cases, qualitative evaluations may be adequate and in other
cases review of existing literature and other relevant environmental impact
analyses from the same area or type of action might be necessary to evaluate a
resource's vulnerability. When there is substantial overlap in the existing condi-
tions and the proposed action (the impact area in the “credit card” depiction
of environmental impact, Figure 4.1) there can be high impact potential to the
resource and detailed vulnerability analysis, as that described by Kvaerner et al.
(2006), may be appropriate. This will frequently involve substantial original data
collection and advanced methods of impact prediction (see Chapter 5).
4.3.1.3
Alternatives for Consideration
As discussed throughout this topic, alternatives are a critical component of
any environmental impact analysis because they provide a basis for deci-
sions and are critical in evaluating environmental trade-offs. For example,
one alternative highway alignment might avoid all wetlands and critical
wildlife resources but infringe on the setting of an important cultural/
historic resource while another alignment would have the opposite effects.
Thus the consideration of alternatives and identification of issues and con-
cerns during scoping is an interactive process. Once issues are brought out
by stakeholders, alternatives should be developed to address the issues and
similarly once alternatives are developed the impacts they could potentially
generate are identified for inclusion in the environmental analysis.
It is the role of the environmental impact analysis team to begin the alter-
natives development process. In virtually every case the team will have
considered at least conceptual approaches to addressing the purpose and
need and these must be presented to the other stakeholders for a number
of reasons. First, it is an early and powerful way of opening a transparent
and cooperative dialogue with the stakeholders. An understanding of poten-
tial alternatives will also stimulate identification of issues, concerns, and
potential impacts among the stakeholders and it is a productive approach to
initiating the conversation and generating stakeholder identification of alter-
natives. Finally, there is little that can destroy stakeholder trust, support, and
cooperative participation more than learning late in the process that the proj-
ect proponent and environmental analysis team had alternatives in mind,
particularly a preferred alternative, and they had not been revealed at the
outset of the scoping process.
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