EIA Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations Laws

South Africa
Published on: July 8, 2010Environmental Laws and Legislation in South Africa2 comments
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Herewith is all the latest documents and legislation relating to Environmental Impact Assessments
in South Africa.

Those involved in the environmental law industry should update themselves with this latest info.

Regular citizens should also read this documentation to be aware of the processes and regulations
especially if they find themselves taking part in an Environmental Impact Assessment for a
development threatening their area. There have been numerous and ongoing attempts by private
Environmental Law Firms and well as Government bodies to run roughshod over these laws and to
rely on the public’s lack of knowledge to speed up and manipulate these processes. Knowing what
procedures must and must not be followed is very important as when it comes to final Records of
Decision (ROD’s) being issued, transgressions of these laws reported by registered parties can cause
a major obstruction for the developer concerned and can lead to a Negative Record of Decision. The
more people that know these laws the better because it keeps closing the gap on those who are paid
hansomely by developers to get Speedy Environmental Approvals.

These documents are provided by government departments and are available to everyone free of
charge.
Nobody may charge you a fee for these documents unless it is a printed version and they charge you
ONLY for their printing costs.

Environmental Impact Assessment EIA Regulations 2010

These come info effect (2 August 2010)

Environmental Impact Assessment EIA Regulations (Government Notice R.543 in Government

Gazette 33306 of 18 June 2010) (Word Doc) (PDF)
Listing Notice 1 (Government Notice R.544 in Government Gazette 33306 of 18 June 2010) (Word
Doc) (PDF)
Listing Notice 2 (Government Notice R.545 in Government Gazette 33306 of 18 June 2010) (Word
Doc) (PDF)
Listing Notice 3 (Government Notice R.546 in Government Gazette 33306 of 18 June 2010) (Word
Doc) (PDF)
Environmental Management Framework Regulations (Government Notice R.547 Government Gazette
33306 of 18 June 2010) (Word Doc) (PDF)

Environmental Impact Assesment EIA Regulations 2006

These regulations remain in effect until the new regulations (above) come into effect on 2 August
2010

Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations (Government Notice R385 in Government Gazette

28753 of 21 April 2006) (PDF)
List of Activities and Competent Authorities (Government Notice R386 in Government Gazette 28753
of 21 April 2006) (PDF)
List of Activities and Competent Authorities (Government Notice R387 in Government Gazette 28753
of 21 April 2006) (PDF)

Regulations dealing with Environmental Management Inspectors

Identification of Environmental Management Inspectors (Government Notice R619 in Government
Gazette 27713 of 1 July 2005) (Word Doc) (PDF)
Qualification Criteria, Training and Identification of, and Forms to be used by, Environmental
Management Inspectors (Government Notice R494 in Government Gazette 28869 of 2 June 2006)
(PDF)

4×4 – 4 Wheel Drive (Off Road) Regulations

Guidelines on the Implementation of Regulations pertaining to the Control of Vehicles in the Coastal
Zone (Government Notice R1426 in Government Gazette 27066 of 7 December 2004) (Word Doc)
(PDF)

Clean Development Mechanism Regulations

Establishment of a designated national authority for the Clean Development Mechanism (Government
Notice R721 in Government Gazette 27788 of 22 July 2005) (Word Doc) (PDF)

South Africa’s new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations came into effect on 2 August
2010, signalling the start of the official implementation process of a new regime aimed at improving
the efficiency and effectiveness of EIA.

EIA is a pro-active and systematic process where potential environmental impacts both positive and
negative associated with certain activities are assessed, investigated and reported. The process
contributes to giving effect to the objectives of integrated environmental management as decision
makers are informed of the desirability of such activities and on the conditions which authorisation of
the activity should be subject to, where relevant.

The new revised regulations are the result of a substantial consultative process and were published
by Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Buyelwa Sonjica in Government Gazette 33306 of 18
June 2010. The NEMA EIA 2010 regulations and the listing notices thereto replace the National
Environmental Management Act (NEMA) EIA regulations of 2006 and its associated listing notices.

These regulations signify an important step towards a more efficient and effective EIA system, in that
apart from aligning the 2006 regulations with the new and improved Act, the 2010 EIA Regulations
seeks to streamline the EIA process. It also introduces an approach where impacts associated with
the sensitivity of the receiving environment are treated with more care – this is achieved through the
introduction of a listing notice dedicated to activities planned for predefined sensitive areas.

The lists of activities requiring environmental authorization prior to commencement have also been
revised. This was a major focus of the amendment process as the EIA system was inter alia
overburdened by large numbers of applications associated with insignificant activities; the
comprehensive scoping and EIR process with its associated substantial costs was in some instances
unjustifiably required for activities for which the impacts were known and thereby potential
entrepreneurs could be excluded from the economy; and some critical activities were omitted.

Three listing notices have been published in conjunction with the new regulations.

Listing notice one (1) stipulates the activities requiring a basic assessment report (BAR). These are
typically activities that have the potential to impact negatively on the environment but due to the
nature and scale of such activities, these impacts are generally known. Listing notice two (2) identifies
the activities requiring both scoping and an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) these are typically
large scale or highly polluting activities and the full range of potential impacts need to be established
through a scoping exercise prior to it being assessed.

The construction of facilities for the storage, or storage and handling of dangerous goods with a
combined capacity of 500m3 or more both above and underground storage will require Scoping and
an EIR and not a BAR.
Listing notice three (3) contains activities that will only require an environmental authorisation through
a basic assessment process if the activity is undertaken in one of the specified geographical areas
indicated in that listing notice. Geographical areas differ from province to province. An example of
such a listing will be cell phone masts.
In terms of timeframes for handling EIAs, where there previously was no consequence for the
authority when it does not meet the regulatory time frames, it is now compelled to reach a decision on
the information it has after a reasonable prescribed extension to the regulated time frames have
lapsed. It should however be emphasized that the regulated time frames have not been extended and
it will be indicated that the time frame has not been met even if the decision is forth coming in the
extension automatically obtained.

In terms of public consultation amendments have been effected to ensure a fair process. For
example, the period from 15 December to 2 January has been excluded from public consultation
processes and in the counting of days for both decisions and lodging of appeals, etc. Another
example of an amendment aimed at improving public consultation and access to the EIA processes is
that a provision has been added requiring that a decision to grant or refuse an application must be
published in the same newspaper as was used during the public participation process. The new
regulations now take into account the amendments made to NEMA and provide for section 24O of
NEMA (40 days for organs of state to comment) and 60 days for Water Affairs if the application is for
a waste activity. In addition land owner consent has been replaced with land owner notification.

The regulations also contain very clear transitional arrangements that address all potential scenarios
both in terms of decisions reached in terms of the EIA Regulations of 1997 and that of 2006, pending
applications from either these regimes that are no longer listed, pending applications that remain
listed either in the exact same format or that are similar to newly listed activities etc. These transitional
arrangements clearly spell out the status of authorisations received prior to the coming into effect of
the 2010 Regulations as well as processes for withdrawing applications for activities no longer listed.

Although mining activities have been listed and certain powers given to the Minister of Mineral
Resources, these provisions and listings have not been brought into effect as it is not yet empowered
by either the National Environmental Management Act or the Mineral Petroleum Resources
Development Act.

In terms of the Environmental Management Framework provisions that previously formed part of the
2006 EIA Regulations, the amendment to the Act that now recognise EMFs as an environmental
instrument in its own right has resulted in standalone EMF regulations which have been published on
18 June and which will also come into effect on 2 August 2010

Source: Media information by the Department of Environmental Affairs, August 2010