Environmental

Assessment
Environmental Assessment

The process of calculating projected effects

that a proposed action or construction project
will have on environmental quality is called
environmental assessment.
Environmental Assessment


A methodical, reproducible, and reasonable
method is needed to evaluate both the effect
of the proposed project and the effects of
alternatives that may achieve the same ends
but that may have different environmental
impacts.
Environmental Assessment
Checklists

primary secondary

Primary effects occur as a direct result of
the proposed project, such as the effect of a
dam on aquatic life.
Secondary effects occur as an indirect result of the action.
For example, an interchange for a highway may not
directly affect wildlife, but indirectly it will draw such
establishments as service stations and quick food stores,
thus changing land use patterns
Checklist for a highway project
During planning, consideration is given to the environ- mental
effects of the highway route and the acquisition and
planning condemnation of property

construction operation

The construction phase checklist will Finally, the operation phase will list direct impacts owing
include displacement of people, noise, soil to noise, water pollution resulting from runoff, energy use,
ero- sion, air and water pollution, and etc.,
energy use
Checklist technique

 The checklist technique thus lists all of the pertinent factors; then the magnitude
and importance of the impacts are estimated. Estimated importance of impact may
be quantified by establishing an arbitrary scale, such as:
0 = no impact
1 = minimal impact The numbers may then be combined, and a quantitative
measurement of the severity of the environmental
2 = small impact
impact for any given alternative be estimated. In the
3 = moderate impact checklist technique most variables must be subjectively
valued. Further, it is difficult to predict further
4 = significant impact conditions such as land-use pattern changes or changes
5 = severe impact in lifestyle
 Impact assessments of controversial projects often do not
use the checklist technique because the numerical ranking
implies a subjective judgment by the environmental
assessment team. A checklist remains a convenient method
for developing a FONSI, although a FONSI requires
subjective selection of the number judged to be the lowest
value of significance
 EXAMPLE 2.1. A landfill is to be placed in the floodplain of a river. Estimate
the impact by using the checklist technique. First the items to be impacted
are listed; then a quantitative judgement concerning both importance and
magnitude of the impact is made. In Table 2- 1, the items are only a sample
of the impacts one would normally consider. The importance and
magnitude are then multiplied and the sum obtained

In order to determine a FONSI in this example, a value that

indicates the lower limit of significance can be assigned to
either importance or magnitude, or to their product. Thus, if the
absolute value of the product of importance and magnitude of
any variable is considered significant only if that product is
10% of the total, odor and noise would not be deemed
significant and need not be considered further in assessing
environmental impact. Alternatively, if the absolute value of
the product of importance and magnitude of any variable is
considered significant only if that product is greater than 5 , the
same conclusion is reached
FONSI
 The interaction matrix technique
a two-dimensional listing of existing
characteristics and conditions of the
environment and detailed proposed
actions that may affect the environment.
This technique is illustrated in Example
2.2. For example, the characteristics of
water might be subdivided into:
 surface
 ocean
 underground
 quantity
 temperature
 groundwater
 recharge
 snow, ice, and permafrostL
 Similar characteristics must also be
defined for air, land, socioeconomic
conditions, and so on. Opposite
these listings in the matrix are lists
of possible actions. In our example,
one such action is labeled resource
extraction, which could include the
following actions
 blasting and drilling
 surface extraction
 subsurface extraction
 well drilling
 dredging
 timbering
 commercial fishing and hunting.
 The interactions, as in the checklist technique, are
measured in terms of magnitude and importance. The
magnitudes represent the extent of the interaction
between the environmental characteristics and the
proposed actions and typically may be measured. The
importance of the interaction, on the other hand, is often
a judgment call on the part of the engineer.
 EXAMPLE 2.2. Lignite (brown) coal is to be
surface-mined in the Appalachian Mountains.
Construct an interaction matrix for the water
resources (environmental characteristics) vs resource
extraction (proposed actions)
 If an interaction is present, for example, between MAGNITUDE
underground water and well drilling, a diagonal line is
placed in the block. Values may then be assigned to the
interaction, with 1 being a small and 5 being a large
magnitude or importance, and the are placed in the
blocks with the magnitude above and importance
below. Appropriate blocks are filled in, using a great
deal of judgement and personal bias, and then are
summed over a line, thus giving a numerical grade for
either the proposed action or environmental
IMPORTANCE
characteristics.

In Table 2-2, we see that the proposed action would have a

significant effect on surface water quality, and that the surface
excavation phase will have a large impact. The value of the
technique is seen when the matrix is applied to alternative
solutions. The individual elements in the matrix, as well as row
and column totals, can be compared
 How to Organize An EA or EIS :

1. Introduction The introduction provides an overview of the

proposed project, alternative actions, and the assessment methods that
will be used. It includes a statement of purpose: why the assessment is
being done. It often includes a summary of the most critical and
important results of the assessment. The introduction can often serve
as an executive summary of the EA or EIS.
 How to Organize An EA or EIS :

2. Description of the Proposed Action and Alternatives

 This section describes the proposed project and all of the
alternatives that need to be considered, including the “no action”
alternative. The last is a description of projections of future
scenarios if the proposed project is not done. All possible
alternatives need not be included; inclusion depends on the project
being undertaken. For example, the EIS for the proposed high-level
radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV, was not
required to consider alternate waste repository sites
 3. Description of the Environment Affected by the
Proposed Action
 This description is best organized by listing
environmental parameters that could be impacted by the
proposed alternative, grouping them into logical sets. One
listing might be:
Ecology Aesthetics Environmental Pollution Economics
• Species and populations -Land and Human Health -Jobs created or lost
• Habitats and communities -Air -Water -Property value
• Ecosystems -Water -Air -jobs
• wetlands -Biota -land
-Human-made objects -noise
-Objects of historical or
cultural significance
Each title might have several specific subtopics to be studied. Numerical ratings may be assigned to these items. One
procedure is to first estimate the ideal or natural levels of environmental quality (without anthropogenic pollution) and take
a ratio of the expected condition to the ideal.
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INDEX
 For example, if the ideal dissolved oxygen in the stream is 9 mg/L, and the effect of the
proposed action is to lower the dissolved oxygen to 3 mg/L, the ratio would be 0.33. This is
sometimes called the environmental quality index (EQI). Another option to this would be to
make the relationship nonlinear, as shown in Fig. 2-1. Lowering the dissolved oxygen by a
few milligrams per liter will not affect the EQI nearly as much as lowering it, for example,
below 4 mg/L , since a dissolved oxygen below 4 mg/L definitely has a severe adverse effect
on the fish population

Inflection point
showing
“significant
change”
 EQIs may be calculated for all checklist items that have a natural quantitative scale. In
order to assess those items that do not have a quantitative scale, like aesthetics or
historical objects, a scale based on qualitative considerations may be generated by an
expert in the particular area. For example, impact on a historic building might be
measured by the cost of recovering from certain amounts of damage. Something like
visual aesthetics can simply be assigned a scale.
 The EQI values are then tabulated for each parameter. Next, weights may be attached to
the items, usually by distributing 1000 parameter importance units (PIU) among the
items. Assigning weights is a subjective exercise and is usually done by the decision
makers: those individuals who are going to make decisions about the project. The
product of EQI and PIU, called the environmental impact unit (EIU), is thus the
magnitude of the impact multiplied by the importance:

EIU = PIU x EQI.

 This method has several advantages. We may calculate the sum of EIUs and
evaluate both the cumulative impact of the proposed project and the “worth” of
many alternatives, including the do-nothing alternative. We may also detect points
of severe impact, for which the EIU after the project may be much lower than
before, indicating severe degradation in environmental quality. Its major
advantage, however, is that it makes it possible to input data and evaluate the
impact on a much less qualitative and a much more objective basis.
 EXAMPLE 2.3. Evaluate the effect of a proposed lignite strip mine on
a local stream. Use 10 PIU and linear functions for EQI. The first step
is to list the areas of potential environmental impact. These may be:
 appearance of water
 suspended solids
 odor and floating materials
 aquatic life 0 dissolved oxygen.
Other factors could be listed, but these will suffice for this example. Next,
we need to assign EQIs to the factors. Assuming a linear relationship, we
can calculate them as in Table 2-3.
Note that we had to put in subjective quantities
for three of the items - “Appearance of water,”
“Odor,” and “Aquatic life” - based on an
arbitrary scale of decreasing quality from 10 to
1. The actual magnitude is not important since a
ratio is calculated. Also note that the sediment
ratio had to be inverted to make its EQI indicate
environmental degradation, i.e., EQI < 1. The
EQI indices are weighted by the 10 available
PIU, and the EIU are calculated. In Table 2-4,
The EIU total of 2.72 for this alternative is then
compared with the total EIU for other
alternatives.
 Evaluation The final part of the
environmental impact assessment,
which is reflected in the record of
decision, is the evaluation of the
results of the preceding studies.
typically the evaluation phase is
out of the hands of the engineers
and scientists responsible for the
inventory and assessment phases.
The responsible governmental
agency ultimately uses the
environmental assessment to
justify the record of decision.