Modern Mining November 2015

CONSULTANTS/ PROJECT HOUSES

SRK turns EIA challenge into an opportunity Responding to the shorter timeframes for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) introduced last year, the Durban office of SRK Consulting (SA) has developed an extensive pre-EIA screening approach to turn this challenge into an opportunity.

A ccording to SRK senior envi- ronmental scientist Philippa Burmeister, this screening will allow clients to understand a project’s environmental impli- cations before launching into the formal EIA process, avoiding significant environmental impacts by accounting for them in the design and planning phases. “This allows for the assessment of alter- natives – such as project location, layout, technology, resource provision and access – and the integration of preliminary management measures into the design and project feasibil- ity,” says Burmeister. “The pre-EIA screening offers an opportunity to identify potential fatal flaws at prefeasibility and feasibility stages of a project, and to go into the EIA process with a clearer understanding of project layout, design, environmental con- straints and controls, and the associated costs.” The screening process also offers the pros- pect for capacity-building and skills transfer. “SRK has identified the chance of creat- ing working groups for specific aspects of the environment, for example in water-related issues,” Burmeister continues. “Each working group would include an expert, an emerging professional, authority representatives and potentially even key stakeholders, improving communication and transferring skills required in later phases of the project.” She argues that the outcome of the new time constraint in the formal process provides clients with the opening to incorporate envi- ronmental considerations into their project feasibility assessment – which is independent of regulatory requirements. “While the screening process may be perceived as yet another environmental require- ment, it could in fact streamline the EIA process and reduce overall costs and delays,” she says. To further enhance the benefit of the early screening investigations, SRK uses a combina- tion of geographic information systems (GIS),

mobile-mapping and data visualisation to store and present the significant amounts of information generated. The company has already started integrating this approach into its environmental and construction projects with great success. “Users appreciate that information can be viewed via the Internet in real time as it is gath- ered in the field without the need for additional hardware, as data is captured on smart phones or tablets. This approach has almost eliminated the need for office-based data capture after undertaking field work,” notes Keagan Allan, a senior scientist with SRK who specialises in GIS. “While there will always be the need for the review and verification of information, this process has significantly reduced the time from when spatial information is collected to when it is available for use in project planning.” “We believe that the investigations can be enhanced if the data gathered is captured and represented spatially through the identi- fication of environmental opportunities and constraints,” comments Burmeister. The strict permitting timeframes that the new National Environmental Management Act (NEMA): EIA Regulations place on environ- mental assessment practitioners (EAPs) and applicants no longer allow the project descrip- tion to evolve and adapt, based on issues raised during the EIA process, according to Burmeister. She says this means that a thorough under- standing of likely environmental impacts – and how to manage them – needs to be obtained even before embarking on the formal EIA process. “Once the formal process starts, there now isn’t time to materially change the process description and complete a thorough assess- ment of the impacts of a project within the stipulated timeframes,” she says. “This is further complicated by the level of detail required for applications – such as water use and atmospheric emissions licences – that now need to be submitted concurrently with the EIA documentation.” 

Philippa Burmeister of SRK Consulting (SA).

“SRK has identified the chance of

creating working groups for specific aspects of the environment, for example in water- related issues.”

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November 2015  MODERN MINING  47