EIA Primer资料文件与下载

The following overview of Environmental Impact Assessment is included to help you understand the historical development, general practice, and differences between countries for EIAs before watching the lectures.

Overview of United States Environmental Impact Assessment 

EIA started in the United States when the U.S. Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970. EIA was just one part of the Act.  The concept, initiated by a Professor at the University of Indiana, Linton Caldwell, was “look before you leap.” 

The Act requires any and all projects that need any kind of permit or funding from the federal government to submit an Assessment indicating what the likely impacts are of the project, comparing the impacts of possible project alternatives.  An initial determination of no significant impact can be made by the relevant regulatory agency (eliminating the EIA requirement in a specific case).

The applicant does the Environmental Impact Statement (or commissions it). First, they have to prepare a Scoping statement and run a scoping event. This includes a public meeting.  EISs are sometimes prepared for policy changes and not just built projects.  Then, based on the scope, they prepare a DRAFT EIS.  This is made public.  Comments are invited (either online or in person at an organized event). Applicants must respond to all the comments and produce a final EIS. After the final EIS is submitted, a Record of Decision (ROD) is generated. There is no requirement that the least environmentally harmful option be selected.  There is supposed to be a discussion of mitigation strategies. But, again, there is no requirement that mitigation measures suggested in the EIS must be followed. Citizens or aggrieved parties can ask the Court to review.  

There are various guidelines, forecasting models, and best practices that have evolved over the years.  There is an industry of environmental engineering consultants who make their living preparing EISs.  About half of the 50 states in the US have what are called mini-NEPAs. These require separate Environmental Impact Reports (EIR) for projects that state’s must review or permit.  In many instances, the EIS is accepted as the EIR.  In a few states, this is not always the case. 

The Council on Environmental Quality (in the White House/Executive Branch) keeps copies of all EISs.  Court decisions continue to modify or alter administrative guidelines (regulations) regarding what EISs have to include. 

The laws governing the ways EIA and EIS are produced and implemented vary across countries, although there is a global treaty that encourages each nation to implement an explicit EIA process of some sort (and more than 100 have done so).  While this module focuses primarily on EIA and SIA in the United States, we do draw attention to the fact that other countries have slightly different approaches to the practices we describe. Nearly all countries, though, include many of the same basic elements:  generating a range of project alternatives; selecting dimensions of impact; scaling and weighting each dimension; forecasting or modeling likely impacts, rating or ranking each alternative in light of projected impacts, and engaging the public at key points in the process. 

Key problems for environmental scholars: 

• How many options (and how different) to study; 

• What measures of environmental impact to use (i.e. which types of water pollution, air pollution, etc. should be studied);

• What time frame and what geographic area to study;

• How to “add together” or amalgamate the various dimensions of impact to  rank project options or alternatives;

• How to forecast what “no build” really produces over time (it’s not that nothing happens);

• What range of mitigation measures ought to be considered;

• How to show or factor in uncertainty in various parts of the forecasts in an EIS;

• What to do about cumulative impacts or simultaneous impacts of other possible projects in the same area?