Environmental Impact Analysis in Project Proposed by Bradken Resource Pty Ltd - Case Study Example

Part 1 Background Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) entails incorporation of environment and the public to the decision-making process of a project. In Australia and other countries, EIA is legal requirement that requires project developers to plan for health and environmental impacts management. Back in 1972, environmental assessment was universally accepted and was endorsed by the United Nation Conference as a framework of managing the contemporary environment. Foundry expansion project proposed by Bradken Resource Pty Ltd involves expansion of its operations to meet the demands of the growing mining industry. The factory has been operating from Kilburn since 1949 being a major supplier of metal product to mining industry. The project plan is expected to offer upgrade of products both to existing and developing projects. Also it will offer advanced melting furnace as well as expanded heat treatment to mining industry. Environmental impact analysis (EIA) of this project will consist of four main stages which include: 1) Screening: This stage analyses the sensitivity of the project relative to the environment. The project should not go beyond a used threshold for in to be commissioned. 2) Scoping: This stage defines the key issues that should be included during environmental assessment. 3) EIS report preparation: This entails objective analysis of the scale and significant of the impacts identified. 4) Review of the report by responsible stakeholders. Leopold matrix will be applied during the assessment of the project due to the following reasons: a) The scoping method of elements identification is extensively used in the reports issued by national environmental agencies. Therefore, the use of Leopold matrix would easily coincide with the reports analysed. b) Scoping method is simple to follow particularly when presented to audience (stakeholders of the project). c) The method comprehensively cover physical, biological and socio-economic impacts related to the project program. d) The project analysis process can be easily modified at any stage of assessment by incorporating the identified environmental characteristics. Construction of Leopold matrix for assessment of Foundry expansion project Leopold matrix identified seven actions that may have potential influence on environment, economy and social conditions. They include, construction, transportation, excavation, raw material processing, water supply and liquid effluents. These actions are listed on the column of the matrix. The matrix alos identified seven potential conditions in physical, biological and social environment that may be influenced. They include cultural heritage, safety, employment, traffic, noise, air quality and ecology. These conditions are listed on vertically on the left of the matrix. In the figure below (figure 1) Leopold matrix, left slashed column represents the possible impact of the project. The magnitude of impacts are measured from 0 to 3, 0 = no impact, 1 = minimal impact 2 = moderate impact 3 = significant impact Evaluation Construction Trucking/transportation Excavation Decommissioning Raw material processing Water supply Liquid effluents Social Cultural heritage Safety 1/3 2/3 1/3 2/3 1/3 3/3 1/3 2/3 3/3 3/3 Economic Employment Traffic 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 Environmental Noise Air quality Ecology 3/3 3/3 3/3 2/3 2/3 1/3 2/3 2/3 3/3 3/3 1/3 2/3 3/3 Figure 1. Leopold matric Justification of grading Social conditions will not be much affected particularly on cultural heritage. The grading of cultural heritage is 1 since the project is just expanded within Australian culture therefore there is no significant impact to culture. Safety can fall in all conditions in the environment. Therefore, poor management of liquid effluents perhaps may lead to significant impact on health and safety of community. The matrix grades this impact as 3 since the policy and principles of environmental protections may not protect the conditions fully to their controls at the beginning of the project. Employment will be influenced positively since there is creation of job opportunities in the transport and manufacturing sector. Therefore, this is graded with a magnitude of 3. The most essential part of assessment of this matrix is the environmental impacts of the project. This is a metal casting factory therefore there is high likelihood of noise beyond the recommended decibels. Therefore, it is graded 3/3-significant impact. Also, there is a likelihood of emission of gasses which will contaminate the air. This is graded as 2/3. Raw material processing has moderate impact on the animals and plants since there is a bit of displacement especially during construction. Poor management of liquid effluent will have significant impact of the ecology (flora and fauna). This is given a grading of 3/3 implying that any negligence to environmental laws and protections would lead to significant impact on the ecosystem. Part 2 Baseline Study Report: Consultation Program of Foundry Expansion Project Introduction This will entail soliciting community’s views on the proposed actions of the project and calling for engagement in dialogue. Foundry expansion project is will entail a two-way information flow between the stakeholders and proponents of the project. Glasson, Therivel and Chadwick (2005) their idea of consultation process that seeking environmental implication of the project from the community is very important. The stakeholders of Foundry expansion project include individuals and families around the place of construction, indigenous communities, Australian Government Regulatory Bodies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Business Partners and Community Based Organizations (CBOs). Consultation with Australia Ministry of Environment and Energy will be a continuous process from concept of program initiation through scoping analysis to operationalization of the set activities for the project. The project program should have the following set objectives: Statement of objectives The core objective of this project program is to obtain and disseminate information, recognize and address regulatory bodies, community and environmental issues and to appropriately come up with mitigation measures for the negative impacts. The project will also be guide by the following sub-objectives: NB: These objectives are the constituent of consultation process for Foundry Project. To provide information as well as educating the individuals, families and community around on the project goal to avoid misconceptions about the proposed project, To address the identified social, economic and environmental problems related to the project implementation, To promote learning and capacity building particularly on the fields that are related to environment, social baseline study feedback, Disseminate information of the Foundry expansion project, To seek and evaluate alternatives for the solutions to the problems, To develop effective mitigation strategies for the project to avoid conflicts. The following methods will be employed to achieve these objectives. Engagement of stakeholders The previous reports showed that an effective communication to stakeholders on contentious issues of environment never extend to public domain would avoid misunderstanding on the conceptual stage of the project. Therefore, Bradken Resource Company will still maintain steady consultation process with all stakeholders concerned. The report of Proposed Foundry expansion shows that over 10 communities are directly affected by the project and the following ways will help in outreaching these communities in a virtuous manner (Steven Smith; Marty Cross; Paterson Gordon; Colin Barker; Jeremy Pola; Carl Fung, 2007). The project manager should issue a notice to the community to curry out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Seek for transparent and accountable way of compensating those parties that will be affected by the project. Ensuring that there is continuous communication to the communities and individuals within the project site, Ensuring that all the project team members are ready and committed to the project requirements. The following are identified to be the primary stakeholders of the project: 1. Communities along Kilburn where proposed project is to be raised, 2. Australia Local Government in the region covered by the project, 3. Australia Ministry of Environment and Sanitation, 4. Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) These stakeholders should be consulted directly through official latters and later engaging them in a public discussion upon completion of the Environmental Impact Assessment. From the scoping report (with the help of Leopold Matrix) the following environmental, economic and social issues were identified to be major threat to the project progression: a) Employment: Employment of people during the construction will increase posing a positive economic growth to Australian economy. Other business ventures will be emerged in the area creating job opportunities inside and around the established project. Employment is ranked 3/3 both in construction transport industry. More people will be employed in casual labour and technical skills like surveying and engineering. b) Construction phase impacts: The project activities in this phase include trenching, pipe laying, transportation of equipment and workers, machine operations and base camp. Trenching affects soil and it is a potential impact to NITEL fibre that would lead to disruption of communication as well as roads. The activities involved in trenching will also affect water and air quality. Pipe laying: There are radiations emitted from pipes that affects air quality. The damage resulting from this activity will affect welders and plumbers. Base camp: This activity will affect vegetation, soil and water. Liquid effluent and domestic waste from base camp will probably alter water quality that will later lead to poor aesthetic when it is dumped on soil and vegetation. c) Decommissioning: This activity affects land use, soil and vegetation. After extraction of raw materials, there is less likelihood to put the land back into use again. However, indigenous farming will be promoted and introduced, re-vegetation programs will be carried as well. Putting this into practice will perhaps display a positive impact from the project. d) Operations: The activities involved in this phase include pigging, maintenance and domestic waste disposal. These activities have the potential of affecting soil, water and air quality. There is contamination of water system within the community with condensate, release of gases through valves will influence air quality and poor disposal of waste will increase the rate of contamination. e) Air quality: EIA report of 2006 shows that Foundry factory produces various specific pollutants that affect both Flora and Fauna. The following toxic gases were presented in the report. They include Ammonia, Suphur Dioxide, Phenol, Cresol, Benzene, Cynide, Hydrogen Sulphide, Dioxin among others mentioned in the report. The meteorological data from Kilburn was obtained and it was found that the annual production of these gases goes beyond the threshold of the composition and was capable of depleting the ecosystem at whole. Impact on air quality was graded 3/3 both on construction and raw material procession. These gases are majorly produced at in the two stages of industry activities. Also, much time is taken in the two stages of production therefore increasing the rate of exposure of workers and community and production amount as well. From Leopold matrix of analysis, air quality is seen to be a major environmental issue affected by the project. This therefore poses a challenge to project implementation. Methods to be employed in overcoming issues identified 1. The company should adequately compensate land owners upon valuing the land acquired. The impact on land is irreversible and the project owners should consider long-term benefits. 2. Site preparation will include displacement of animals and plants. This is often referred to as temporal migration of wildlife. The effect is no that significant but adherence to regulation is very important and it is a law. Therefore, all the legal requirements should be followed to avoid confrontation. 3. Air quality is a major challenge as identified during scoping analysis. Air is contaminated during transport and raw material processing thus increasing health risk in the environment. The company should therefore not go beyond environmental threshold in gas production. After cross examination of potential impacts and strategies to reduce Foundry project impact in the environment, it is important to obtain authorization from all authorities concerned before commencement of the project. The project manager should update project planning tool relative to the reports from Environmental Impact Assessment. This baseline reports will thus help stakeholders in variety of ways which include: 1) Providing information about the goals and objectives of the project, 2) Offering designing tools like scoping and EIA analysis which will evaluate the potential social, economic and environmental issues of concern. 3) Overall confidence of moving forward with this project is laid down right from effective communication to all stakeholders. Then project will thus gain support from the interested parties as well as economy builders. Australian Government will also benefit from the project especially when it comes to revenue collection and job creation for the unemployed. References Glasson, J., Therivel, R. and Chadwick, A. (2005). Introduction to environmental impact assessment. 1st ed. London: Routledge. Steven Smith; Marty Cross; Paterson Gordon; Colin Barker; Jeremy Pola; Carl Fung, (2007).Public Environmental Report. Proposed Upgrade and Expansion of an Existing Foundry 80 Cromwell Road Kilburn. Sydney: Bradken. Read More