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November 2015
MODERN MINING
47
CONSULTANTS/
PROJECT HOUSES
feature
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.”
SRK
turns EIA challenge
into an
opportunity
Philippa Burmeister of SRK
Consulting (SA).
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.
“SRK has
identified the
chance of
creating working
groups for specific
aspects of the
environment, for
example in water-
related issues.”