A Comprehensive Report on Environmental Impact Assessment in NSW

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system in New South Wales (NSW). It begins by introducing the context of environmental concerns and the evolution of EIA, including the role of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act ...Read More

RUNNING HEAD: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 1
Environmental Impact Assessment
Evaluation of the environmental impact assessment system in
NSW
Submitted by:
Roll no.:

Abstract
The report is based on the Environmental Impact Assessment Improvement Project in New
South Wales. It describes the involvement of public and private bodies in the development of
groups. It further describes involvement in EIAs in order to carry out an effective assessment
processes in order to carry out the ‘scientific studies’ in a well-informed way. This has direct
potential environmental impacts on the community in order to gain a long-term insight. This act
as an important tool in self -serving arguments from the point of view of receiving the benefits of
the process without incurring costs
Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.......................................................5
Environmental Impact Assessment Improvement Project (NSW)...............................................................5
Process Of Project Implementation.............................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
Introduction
Changes in the speed, scope and magnitude of the natural environment are determined through
the level of technology available with the community. The level of interaction in between the
different elements present around is relatively low. The changes incorporated by the natural
environment do have a massive impact on human civilization. More significant changes are
incorporated due to civilization and interaction with the environmental components (Glasson,
Therivel and Chadwick, 2013). The environmental needs are absorbed by involvement in a good
way. A positive reception of cultural and philosophical history provides an indulgence of EIA.

At present there is no single reason for the development of modern society's rising concern for
the environment. Still, the significant point is that these concerns exist, and have been compiled
for managing assessment procedures (Wathern, 2013). Some legislations relating to
environment has been enacted. They are focus on managing general environmental awareness.
This is important for managing the environmental aspects to gain high priority on an individual
part. The consequence is that they are not compared on an equal footing with economic issues.
Environment Impact Assessment is an attempt to restore the disparity. The theoretical practice of
impact assessment is addressed in detail to address the ongoing environmental issues.
Nevertheless, it should be remembered that the process is effective to manage the plan in a better
way. Eventually, the willingness to think about the consequences of actions is undertaken for
gaining impact. In other words, Environmental impact assessment ensures the environmental
effectiveness. The Individuals are allowed to accept the responsibility in order to accept the
effects of a proposal. They do not depend on the Regulations and bureaucracies. The report is
based on EIA Improvement Project in NSW (Petts, 2009).
History of Environment Impact Assessment
The history of Environment Impact Assessment is linked with the US National environmental
Policy Act in 1970 creating a mandatory requirement. The EIA was introduced at the state level
prior before the implementation at the Common level. Every state has a divergent opinion about
it. The pioneer state introducing EIA was New South Wales by issuing guidelines in State
Pollution Control Commission in 1974. Australia is following the EIA at a national level through
Environment Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act in 1974. At present, the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) is prevailed in the country
superseding the previous act. The commonwealth act does not put a direct impact on the law

and regulations made by the state. Moreover EPBC runs as a parallel to the State/Territory
Systems. Any kind of overlap in between the state and commonwealth is addressed through the
bilateral agreement or any of the accreditation of the state policies and procedure (Biswas and
Agarwal, 2013).
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
The EPBC Act provides with a legal framework to promote and protect nationally and
internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places-defined. The
act applied to the 9 matters of national interest as follows:
• Protection of World Heritage sites
• Protection of the National Heritage places
• RAMSAR wetlands of global importance
• Listing threatened species and ecological communities
• Protection of Migratory species under the international agreements
• To protect The Commonwealth marine environment
• Nuclear actions
• National Heritage
• To protect the Water resources, in order to develop the coal and mining development
(Morgan, 2012).

Environmental Impact Assessment Improvement Project (NSW)
In addition to the act, it requires to streamline the national interest assessment and approval
process and activities. In New South Wales, the Environment Planning Assessment Act 1979 set
up three pathways for EIA. The first Part 5.1 of the EPAA provides 'State Significant
Infrastructure' projects From June 2011, replacing the previous part 3A form. The second Part 4
of the Act deals with the development and control. Those projects that do not require approval
under Part 3A or Part 4 are captured by the third pathway (Middle and Middle, 2010). Lastly,
Part 5 deals with the environment impact assessment. The communities are largely concern about
novel development taking place in the surrounding. EIA in New South Wales help in managing
the environmental value. This at the same time helps in managing the different issues related to
the environment. It is providing with a wider community option while managing the Department
in order to address in reaching decision on the planning application (Environmental Impact
Assessments, 2017). The Department helps in managing the aspect in relation to the State
significant project prior to development of the proposal before the Minister for Planning or the
Minister’s delegate. This is significant from the point of view of putting forward the different
aspect in relation to the planning and development. This will help in managing the information
through Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) while considering feedback from government
agencies and the community (Jordan and Lenschow, 2009).
Process Of Project Implementation
EIA is an important format that helps in managing a noteworthy part from the point of view of
State significant development (SSD) and State significant infrastructure (SSI) proposals. This
help in managing the environmental, social and economic impacts while considering the factors.
It includes project development and setting terms of reference for the EIS through Secretary’s

Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs). The public exhibition of the EIS reception
of obedience reacts to submissions evaluation of the project by the Department determination of
the project by the Minister. This is important for managing compliance in order to build and
operate effective function (Environmental Impact Assessment Improvement Project. 2017).
This helps in managing the resources in the best possible way. NSW advances toward the EIA
and the other jurisdictions in Australia and abroad. These issues are raised by the community
and other stakeholders in order to seek the improvements. For gaining competency, it is helpful
in creating a consistent framework in order to ensure growth and development. It is important
for managing the resources while engaging with the community and other stakeholders in order
to manage the quality. This is helpful in provide a standard framework for setting conditions for
the construction and operation of projects. It is providing a better quality in on the approved
project to improve post-approval compliance. This is important from increase accountability for
the practice of EIA professionals. These will give further direction on moving toward to growing
impact assessment and professional practice (Environmental Impact Assessment Improvement
Project - Community feedback. 2017). Thus it is necessary for managing the overall environment
assessment in order to manage the facts. The NSW Government is proposing changes to the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 in order to take initiative. The Other
initiatives are linked in improving EIA that include Legislative updates concerning modifying
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (Lehmann and Joseph, 2015).
Environmental Impact Assessments has created its own industry while consulting firms, Legal
firms have to create income and employment at their own expenses. The NSW Government’s
Discussion Paper in order to manage the environmental aspect. This is an important aspect in
dealing with ‘EIA professionals’10 in order to recognize various environmental approvals in

order to sustain in the industry. The University of NSW has incorporated a course devoted to
Environmental Impact Assessment (Reed, 2008). This is important from then point of view of
developing an insight. People involved in the development of groups are directly involved in
EIAs in order to carry out a ‘rigorous’ assessment processes in order to carry out the ‘scientific
studies’ in a well-informed way. This has direct potential environmental impacts on the
community in order to gain a long-term insight. These are self-serving arguments from the point
of view of receiving the benefits of the process without incurring costs. Majority of the resources
used in the development of EIAs are employed productively in the economy. On the other side
EIAs are used by green groups to stop development (Mitchell, 2013). Environmental Impact
Assessments ultimately causes a pressure on political party in order to seek project approval.
Majority of project are disrupted causing an extreme pressure on the Government bodies in
carrying out the objective. The intention is to manage government assessment processes to stop
the big project development as provided by the green groups in restricting the Coal Export Boom
strategy document.12. The document thereby targeting of seven major projects in New South
Wales. One of the critical aspects is to manage the priority from the critical projects to slow
down in the endorsement procedure. Moreover, the strategy is to fundamentally disturb and
delay key projects and infrastructure. This is important from managing the restricted resources in
order to gain distinct results appropriately. It is not in agreement with high-quality public
strategy for ideologically motivating groups in order to insert approvals process, chiefly with the
appropriate challenge in Ministerial endorsement of projects in court. This is important from the
point of view of managing costs of legal challenges, and green groups that is made under federal
environmental law (Darnall, Henriques and Sadorsky, 2008).

The cost related to the EIS is borne by the proponents under the consultation of independent
proponents. This works efficiently under the guidance of the governing body. It helps in
managing the concern n an effective way by culminating the ill-impacts associated with a
project. The concept of EIA considers both the direct and carminative impact in order to deal
with long awaiting effects. The decision making structure and rhea institutional value has to
undergo a cooperative and regional decision making in order to encourage use of bio-regional
approach. The goal of EIS is to clearly state whether the decision related to a project is proponent
to the concept. On a long run, the site specific effects and scope has an impact on managing the
issues related to the development of the resources. Public participation has a major influence on
the result on a long run. A public inquiry is necessary for managing the issues in the best
possible way. Any procedural challenges faced under the EIS are affected by the constraints
while creating an opportunity in order to manage the concern in an appropriate way. The
degraded environment has a direct constraint in order to manage the opportunity to manage the
new implication. The proponents are disallowed to evade responsibility for environmental care
by transferring EIS to an ‘Environmental Management Plan’ (Gregory et al 2012). This is to
manage the relative outcomes while monitoring adequate baseline studies with post-decision
observation and auditing. This includes penalties for non-compliance of the act done under the
EIA. A positive reception of cultural and philosophical history provides an indulgence of EIA.
At present there is no single reason for the development of modern society's rising concern for
the environment. This is however evident from the point of view of developing an effective
result in order to reduce the damage (Durant and Fiorino, 2017).

Conclusion
The purpose behind implementing EIA is to manage the resources in the best possible way and
analysing the side-effects while carrying out the activities. This is important for generating better
opportunities in order to deliver positive result for the people. In a long run, this is taken as a
beneficial activity in order to arrange the functions by understanding the facts. This is necessary
for managing the impacts the certain activities has on environment. This is important for gaining
better opportunities by implementing a plan necessary to organize results. This is important for
managing the results in the best effective way to manage the outcome. The rules and regulations
related to the compliance functions are directed by the development of resources in best possible
way. It is significant from managing the functions in an appropriate way. The Environment
Assessment is significant from the point of view of generating awareness and growth in the
sector. It is important for managing long-term sustainable goals with the effectiveness. It is
necessary in defining the applicability of various law and regulations in order to manage the
consequences. Nevertheless, it is necessarily to be taken as an effective process to manage the
plan in a better way.
References
Biswas, A.K. and Agarwal, S.B.C. eds., 2013. Environmental impact assessment for developing
countries. Elsevier.
Darnall, N., Henriques, I. and Sadorsky, P., 2008. Do environmental management systems
improve business performance in an international setting?. Journal of International
Management, 14(4), pp.364-376.

Durant, R.F. and Fiorino, D.J., 2017. Environmental governance reconsidered: challenges,
choices, and opportunities. MIT Press.
Environmental Impact Assessment Improvement Project - Community feedback. 2017. Online.
Available at: http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Policy-and-Legislation/Under-review-and-new-
Policy-and-Legislation/Environmental-Impact-Assessment-Improvement-Project/Community-
feedback Accessed on: 5 November 2017
Environmental Impact Assessment Improvement Project. 2017. Online. Available at:
http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Policy-and-Legislation/Under-review-and-new-Policy-and-
Legislation/Environmental-Impact-Assessment-Improvement-Project Accessed on: 5 November
2017
Environmental Impact Assessments, 2017. Online. Available at:
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/lodge-track-applications/lodge-your-application-or-
certificate/lodge-your-application-department-0 Accessed on: 5 November 2017
Glasson, J., Therivel, R. and Chadwick, A., 2013. Introduction to environmental impact
assessment. Routledge.
Gregory, R., Failing, L., Harstone, M., Long, G., McDaniels, T. and Ohlson, D.,
2012. Structured decision making: a practical guide to environmental management choices. John
Wiley & Sons.
Jordan, A. and Lenschow, A. eds., 2009. Innovation in environmental policy?: integrating the
environment for sustainability. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Lehmann, J. and Joseph, S. eds., 2015. Biochar for environmental management: science,
technology and implementation. Routledge.
Middle, G. and Middle, I., 2010. A review of the use of environmental offset as a policy
mechanism in the environmental impact assessment process (EIA) in Western Australia. Impact
Assessment and Project Appraisal, 28(4), pp.313-322.
Mitchell, B., 2013. Resource & environmental management. Routledge.
Morgan, R.K., 2012. Environmental impact assessment: the state of the art. Impact Assessment
and Project Appraisal, 30(1), pp.5-14.
Petts, J. ed., 2009. Handbook of Environmental Impact Assessment: Volume 2: Impact and
Limitations (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
Reed, M.S., 2008. Stakeholder participation for environmental management: a literature
review. Biological conservation, 141(10), pp.2417-2431.
Wathern, P. ed., 2013. Environmental impact assessment: theory and practice. Routledge.