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Action 6. Environmental Impact Assessment

Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, commonly called the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive was incorporated into Irish Law in 1989 by Statutory Instrument S.I. 349 (1989), and the Local Government Planning and Development Regulations by S.I. 25 (1990). The Directive has the potential to have far reaching implications for both public and private developments in Ireland, whether they be industrial, land drainage, afforestation, agriculture, motorway or other projects.

At European level, the original EIA Directive was amended in 1997. The latter was transposed into Irish law mainly by the European Communities (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Amendment) Regulations, 1999 and the Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations, 1999. The recent amendments improve the EIA process primarily by adding to the list of projects that require EIA.

For certain projects listed in Annex I of the Directive, an EIA is mandatory. These include power stations, oil refineries, waste disposal sites and integrated chemical installations. Peat extraction and a number of other projects were added by the recent amendments.

Other projects listed in Annex II, an EIA is discretionary, and will only be required if they are considered by Member States to be likely to have significant environmental effects. The harnessing of wind power for energy production and afforestation of previously unforested land are both included in Annex II.

Since the scale of development has a direct bearing on its potential impact, the State, in implementing the Directive into Irish Law, set thresholds for the Annex II list for which an EIA is mandatory. Examples of thresholds above which an EIA is required are: afforestation 70ha and peat extraction 50ha.

Other factors, in addition to threshold values, play an important part in the likelihood of a significant adverse impact, e.g. where the development is to be located in a sensitive environment. The location of developments and the cumulative effects of more than one project is now to be taken into consideration when screening projects for EIA.

It is eleven years since this Directive was introduced to Irish Law. In that time it does not appear to have been as effective in controlling development in peatland areas as was hoped. Numerous environmentally detrimental developments are still taking place without EIAs. 39 sites with an area of 8,390ha of formerly intact raised and blanket bogs have been partially damaged by peat extraction or afforestation schemes without an EIA being undertaken.

On the basis of this information, IPCC argued that the thresholds set for peat extraction of 50ha and the original afforestation threshold of 200ha were too high. In relation to peat extraction there has never been an EIA carried out for any extraction scheme and yet, 36 sites have been damaged by extraction. In the case of 5 sites the area developed exceeded the 50ha threshold and proceeded without an EIA being conducted. IPCC has brought this information to the attention of the European Union in an official complaint.

The result of this complaint was a ruling at the EU court of justice in 1998 that Ireland had failed to apply correctly the EIA Directive (case C ­ 392/96) . The court ruled that the Irish authorities had exceeded their discretion in implementing the EIA Directive by only laying down size thresholds for EIA, in this case for afforestation, peat cutting and land reclamation projects, without taking into account the nature, location and cumulative effects of projects. The court ruled that even small projects might be deemed to have significant impacts if located in an environmentally significant area.

The Department of the Environment were to comply with this ruling. To date there has been no reduction in the threshold for peat extraction.

General Objective
To have Government introduce a lower threshold for peat extraction to ensure that all future commercial peat extraction developments are subject to EIA.

IPCC made official complaints to the EU over Ireland's failure to correctly apply the EIA Directive. Submissions have been made to the Department of the Environment expressing the need to reduce thresholds for peat extraction. As a result of IPCC submissions, peat extraction is no longer an exempted development under the 1999 Planning Act and therefore requires permission. IPCC have criticised the poor standard of some EIA reports, that are inadequate to assess the impact of developments.

Actions
3.6.1 The Directive should include requirements for the monitoring of impacts on projects which have been granted permission.

3.6.2 The peat development threshold should be reduced from 50 hectares to 5 hectares on sites outside of NHAs/SACs. This will enable small scale domestic cutting to continue without being subject to EIA.

3.6.3 Any future definition of peat extraction developments must include pre-drainage works as part of the development.

3.6.4 Any proposed development irrespective of size or scale on a designated area (NHA/SAC) should be subject to EIA.

3.6.5 The forestry threshold should be reduced from 70ha to 50ha.

3.6.6 EIA must be required for individual forestry or peat development projects which are contiguous and whose combined size exceeds the national thresholds.

3.6.7 The Department of the Environment should promote the positive value of the EIA process to developers and the general public as a means of protecting our national heritage.

3.6.8 The quality of an EIA must improve, those drawing up EIAs must take a more scientific approach when identifying possible impacts, mitigation measures and alternatives. Those EIAs that are deemed of poor quality should be refused by the planning authorities.