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Overview of United States Environmental Impact Assessment 

                                  美国环境影响评估概述

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.” 

1970年美国国会通过的《国家环境政策法案》，环境影响评估在美国正式开始实施。环境影响评估只是该法案的其中一部分。其核心概念由印第安纳大学的林顿•考德威尔教授提出——“三思而后行”。

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).

该法案提出要求，任何需要联邦政府提供任何形式许可或资助的项目必须提交一份评估报告，说明该项目可能产生的影响，并与备选项目方案的影响进行比较。非重大影响可由相关监管机构进行初步裁定（取消特定情况下的环境影响评估要求）。

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.  

申请人执行环境影响声明（或委托执行）。 首先，他们必须准备一份范围界定说明并进行范围界定，其中包括公开会议。环境影响声明有时需要为政策变化，而不仅是为待建项目而准备。然后，在此范围基础之上，他们需要准备一份环境影响声明草案。该草案应当向公众公开，并广泛征求意见（通过在线或亲临有组织活动的方式）。申请人必须对所有的评论进行回复并确定最终版的环境影响声明。最终版的环境影响声明提交之后，会生成一份决策记录（ROD）。并不要求必须选择对环境破坏最小的选项，但应对缓和措施展开讨论。不过同样地，环境影响声明中的缓和措施并不要求强制执行。公民或利益受损方可要求法院进行复审。

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. 

多年以来，已经形成了多种指导方针、预测模型和最佳实践做法。靠准备环境影响声明谋生的环境工程顾问已经成为了一整个行业。美国50个州中，约有一半拥有所谓的“迷你国家环境政策法案”。这些法案要求出具单独的环境影响报告（EIR）用于州政府必须审查或许可的项目。在许多情况下，环境影响声明可作为环境影响报告的一种形式。在少数几个州内，情况并非总是如此。

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. 

环境质量委员会（在白宫/行政部门）负责保存所有环境影响声明的副本。由法院判决继续修改或改变有关环境影响声明必须包含内容的行政指南（条例）。

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. 

虽然有一项全球性条约鼓励各国实施某种明确的环境影响评估程序（有100多个国家已经这样做了），但各国制定和实施环境影响评估与环境影响评估方法的法律各不相同。虽然本部份主要聚焦于美国的环境影响评估与社会影响评估，但我们也希望大家注意到其他国家的做法会与我们描述的做法略有不同。但是，几乎所有国家的相关内容都包括许多相同的基本要素：生成一系列的备选项目方案；选择影响的维度；确定范围与分配各维度的权重；预测或模拟可能的影响，根据预测的影响评估或排列各方案，并促使公众参与到该过程中的重要环节内。

Key problems for environmental scholars 环保学者的焦点问题: 

• How many options (and how different) to study 有多少个（有多不同）方案可供研究; 

• What measures of environmental impact to use (i.e. which types of water pollution, air pollution, etc. should be studied) 使用什么样的环境影响测量尺度（即应该研究何种水污染、空气污染等）;

• What time frame and what geographic area to study 研究的时间框架和地理界线是什么;

• What models to use to produce forecasts 用来预测的模型是什么样的;

• How to “add together” or amalgamate the various dimensions of impact to  rank project options or alternatives 如何将各影响维度“加在一起”或整合起来，从而为各项目方案进行排序;

• How to forecast what “no build” really produces over time (it’s not that nothing happens) 如何预测“不予建设”的情况一段时间后会如何（不代表什么都不做）;

• What range of mitigation measures ought to be considered 应该考虑哪些缓和措施;

• How to show or factor in uncertainty in various parts of the forecasts in an EIS 如何在环境影响声明中体现出预测各部分的不确定性;

• What to do about cumulative impacts or simultaneous impacts of other possible projects in the same area? 面对积累影响或同一地区其它项目带来的同时影响时应该怎么办？