EIA & EMP
The Australian Government (AG)/Commonwealth of Australia (Cth), States and Territories (S&T) all have Environmental Protection (EP)/NSW Protection of the Environment (PoE) legislation (Acts) e.g. AG-NSW-VIC-QLD-WA-ACT EP Acts, and TAS Management (EM)/NT Assessment (EA). In most cases the Acts, and subordinate laws include the establishment of a S/T EP Agency/Authority (EPA) that operated as a separate entity or absorbed into frequently changing government organisations (GO). In parallel is planning &/or development (P&D) law in S/T/Local Government (LG) Planning Systems.
The EP Acts generally encompass high-level Strategic Principles that generally meet our United Nations (UN) commitment to Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) and the Precautionary (PCP), Intergenerational Equity (IGE), Conservation of Biodiversity (CBD), Polluter Pays (PPP); and some progressive market-based mechanisms (MBM) for pollution reduction (↓P); with subsidiary Environmental Objectives (EO) e.g. shared responsibility, product stewardship/life-cycle analysis (LCA), clean production and waste management (WM*) that are now included in specific laws. Unfortunately, the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) ‘Water Tax’ although unsuccessful at least providing a valuable lesson for developing the eventual Carbon Tax regime when the IPCC CoPs finally agree.
All jurisdictions enact National EP Measures (NEPM) that focus on Land e.g. Contaminated Sites (CS) and WM*; Air (AQ), Water (WQ) and Noise (NQ) Quality, I call green LAWNs. Other laws enact AG interests i.e. EP and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) Matters of National Significance (MNES): World (WHP)/National Heritage places (NHP), Wetlands of International Importance (WII)- Ramsar Agreement, Listed Threatened Species and Communities (LTSC), Listed Migratory Species (LMS), Marine Environment Commonwealth Marine Areas (ME-CMA), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) and Water Resource Protection for large ‘mining’ development (WRP: CSGD/LCMD).
The primary EO is to provide EP by preventing/controlling/managing Risk (ER*) of Impacts (EI) to Values (EV) that lead to Harm/Hazards (EH*) and/or human Health Impacts (HI). This is particularly critical when managing Significant/Major proposals/projects/developments that potentially cause Significant EI (SEI) or are of public interest or are located in environmentally sensitive areas (ESA).
Most States have a Bilateral Agreement (BA) with the AG to manage MNES for projects with SEI. Progressive States have a dedicated government organisation (GO) responsible for EM of EIA e.g. Queensland Coordinator-Generals Office (C-GO) under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 (SDPWO Act), however the ‘EPA’ generally provide scientific input.
A SEI Project requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that will be publicly issued as an EI Statement (EIS) that meets the EPA Scope of issues that need to be addressed to follow S/T process e.g. Project Description (PD), Public Consultation (PC), and key Socio-Economic, Environmental and Cultural (SEEC) values and factors/indicators. As per the Risk Management system (ISO 31000: RM*) the initial task is to identify EVs at risk, analyse the probability of risk (impact of uncertainty on outcomes), evaluate solutions and propose treatments. The two biggest parts of any EIA are the identification and treatment of risks, the latter is called an Environmental Management Plan (EMP).
An EMP proposes RM* measures/methods/criteria to protect/preserve EVs (PEV) before EH* occurs. Adjectives used by government policy writers should clearly state what descriptors mean to reduce confusion. However, in some S/Ts the development of a generic EMP is left to Australian industry to develop.
Like an EM System (ISO 14000: EMS), an EMP consists of control measures (CM), incident contingency (CP*)/emergency response plans (ERP*), training/induction (Trg), regular review (Rev) and consistent documentation (Dox)/records for monitoring (Mon), incidents (EI*) and Complaints.
(My simplified EMPs will be available for use in a series of LAWNS templates depending on interest- please let me know).