Critical Review of Carlton Plain Project's EIA: Video Analysis

This assignment involves a critical review of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) case study, specifically focusing on the Carlton Plain Stage 1 Project and its handling of inland waters, particularly concerning the Ord River. The project requires the creation of a 2-3 minute video that examines the project's application of the mitigation hierarchy in relation to international best practices. The video should briefly describe the case study, identify the environmental management topic (disturbance of the Ord River banks; impacts from the use of chemicals, nutrients, and water runoff), explain relevant international EIA best practices, and critically analyze how the environment was managed in the case study, including the use of sources and EIA procedural materials. The analysis highlights the project's heavy reliance on the avoidance step of the mitigation hierarchy, particularly recycling tailwater and preventing discharge, with a lack of mitigation and restoration procedures, potentially posing risks. The assignment emphasizes the importance of including all four stages of risk mitigation (avoidance, minimization, restoration, and mitigation) and the inclusion of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) to ensure environmental protection. The video assesses the extent to which the case study upheld best practice EIA standards, focusing on a critical aspect of analysis.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Environmental Impact Assessment
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Script Draft for Video Making
The case study “disturbance of the Ord River banks; impacts from the use of chemicals,
nutrients and water runoff” concern with the Environmental Impact Assessment or EIA
practices related to inland waters in the Carlton Plain project. The case study is a project type
study that looks deeper into the measures that were taken in the aforementioned project. The
location of the project is the area surrounding the Ord River in Western Australia. The
problem with project development near inland river areas is the seepage and leaching of toxic
water of industry effluents. This water leaching can cause long term damage to the
underground water as well as the water of the river, thus affecting the flora, fauna and lives of
people living in that area. A deeper investigation in the project shows that the Carlton Project
had only taken into account the avoidance step of EIA. There are generally four steps that any
project should cover so that all the standards of EIA can be ensured. These are avoidance,
minimization, restoration and mitigation. The project of Ord River relied heavily on recycling
the tailwater and stopping the industry discharge from mixing into the water. In their EIA
report there is no mention of mitigation of risks that might appear due to water leaching.
The report claims that the acid sulphate soil exposure is not expected in the project. This falls
under the assumption that everything would go as per their expectation throughout their
project. The lack of mitigation and restoration procedure makes the project a risk for future.
The best practices of EIA standards suggest that all the four stages of risk mitigation should
be included in a project in order to ensure that the environment and the people are not
affected adversely. The best practice here would also include Environmental management
plan (EMP) that would enable the proponents to monitor the ground water and leaching
activity should it ensue. This measure was included in to the project along with flood
management techniques for further minimization of environmental disasters. In the EIA
report of the project the restoration and compensation procedures were surprisingly absent.

2ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
The international standards of EIA, takes into consideration several aspects in the practice. It
places emphasis on the irrigation management aspect. The water used in irrigation should be
recycled and treated properly before there is any run-off. This mitigates the risk of this water
getting mixed into the river water and water leaching to ground water. It is also argued that
any project that does not take all the four stages of EIA into consideration should not be
allowed to commence at all. The EIA standard also suggests ensuring ecological values by
cutting down agriculture and recreational industries. In order to maintain the biodiversity and
ecosystem balance, comprehensive sea and land scaling should be done.