Kevin BollandA Day in the Life of an Environmental Consultant
In the world of environmental planning ,the goal is to provide an unbiased, facts based, legally compliant feedback that may dictate the future of a project. What kinds of projects are we talking about though?
Some examples of typical projects that may require an environmental planning document of some kind would include developing property, tearing things down, creating a new kind of use for a property, or even installing new billboards near to the freeway. Many situations call for an analysis of environmental impacts.
In this article I will discuss the different features of an environmental impact report and how to learn more about the data that can support findings in each section.
First of all, an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is one kind of document among many that are submitted to the government that regulates development and the environment around you. Other kinds of documents that are often written more frequently are called Mitigated Negative Declarations (MNDs), Categorical Exemptions (CEs), and Initial Studies (IS). I won't bore you with the details of how or why they are different right now, but I will talk about the contents.
In general, these documents do their best to analyze many of the problems that can arise from developing a new property. In fact, as of 2019, there are more than 20 sections of an EIR or MND. These sections include the following:
Cover, Table Of Contents (basically this list), and Acronym List
Executive Summary
Introduction
Environmental Setting
Project Description
Environmental Analysis
Aesthetics
Agriculture and Forestry Resources
Air Quality
Biological Resources
Cultural Resources
Geology and Soils
Greenhouse gas Emissions
Hazards and Hazardous Materials
Hydrology and Water Quality
Land use and Planning
Mineral Resources
Noise
Population and Housing
Public Services
Recreation
Transportation and Traffic
Utilities and Service Systems
Significant Unavoidable Adverse Impacts
Alternatives to the Proposed Project
Impacts Found not to be Significant
Significant Irreversible Changes due to the Proposed Project
Growth-inducing Impacts of the Proposed Project
Organizations and Persons Consulted
Qualifications of Persons Preparing eir
Bibliography
Appendices
Notice Of Preparation and Initial Study
Comment Letters
General Plan Goals and Policies
Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Emission Modeling Data
General Biological Resource Information
Cultural Resource Study
Safety Analysis
Noise Monitoring and Modeling Data
Traffic Study
In terms of how these reports are prepared. The image below essentially describes the process that must be followed in order to create one of these reports.
What's funny, is that the first box in the image above creates a problem for most people. How do you define what a project is? Well, there is a long answer and a short answer. Again, I'll give you the short answer so that you at least have an idea of what I'm talking about.
A "Project" is the “whole of an action” subject to a public agency’s discretionary approval or funding , with the potential for resulting in either: A direct physical change in the environment or A reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
Now what this basically means is that any time you want to do something that may have an effect on the environment or the infrastructure around you, then it may need to go through this process.
Honestly, most of the time this really means that you perform a few studies on the property and indicate that there will be a "less than significant impact" on the environment and you can go ahead and build what you were trying to build. The more complex the project, the more complex the document.
Now who and what says that these documents even need to be produced? Well it depends on where you are... but the easiest way to say it is "the government does". Frankly its a great thing that they require it, because, without them, traffic would be terrible, noises would not be regulated like they are, and the environment would be even more messed up than it already is. There are a number of historical examples of why environmental planning is needed. Such as the pollution of Lake Washington (read more here), or the cuyahoga river that caught fire because of pollution multiple times (read more here).
Environmental planning shows that people can work together to create a better future for us all. With it, we can position ourselves for a future of successful investments, a clean environment, and sustainabiliy!
Join me in learning more about this wonderful field of scientific understanding! Check out my other blog articles here.
Thanks for reading.