Environmental

Impact Assessment
EVT450
NURUL NADIAH MOHD FIRDAUS
Environmental Quality Act, 1974 and
Subsidiary Legislation
ƒ Lists of Laws
• Environmental Quality Act 1974 [Act 127]
• Environmental Quality (Licensing) Regulations 1977 [P.U (A) 198/77]
• Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Crude Palm Oil) Order 1977 [P.U
(A)
199/77]
• Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Crude Palm Oil) Regulations
1977
[P.U (A) 342/77]
• Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Raw Natural Rubber) Order 1978
[P.U (A) 250/78]
• Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 1978 [P.U (A) 280/78]
• Environmental Quality (Compounding of Offences) Rules 1978 [P.U (A) 281/78]
• Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Raw Natural Rubber) Regulations
1978 [P.U (A) 338/78]
• Environmental Quality (Sewage and Industrial Effluents) Regulations 1979 [P.U
(A)
12/79]
•Environmental Quality (Control of Lead Concentration in Motor Gasoline)
Regulations 1985 [P.U (A) 296/85]
• Environmental Quality (Motor Vehicle Noise) Regulations 1987 [P.U (A) 244/87]
Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities) (Environmental Impact
Assessment) Order 1987 [P.U (A) 362/87]
• Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 1989 [P.U (A) 139/89]
• Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Scheduled Wastes Treatment and
Disposal Facilities) Regulations 1989 [P.U (A) 141/89]
• Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Scheduled Wastes Treatment and
Disposal Facilities) Order 1989 [P.U (A) 140/89]
• Environmental Quality (Delegations of Powers on Marine Pollution Control) Order 1993
[P.U (A) 276/93]
• Environmental Quality (Prohibition on the Use of Chlorofluorocarbons and Other Gases
as Propellants and Blowing Agents) Order 1993 [P.U (A) 434/93]
• Environmental Quality (Delegations of Powers on Marine Pollution Control) Order 1994
[P.U (A) 537/94]
• Environmental Quality (Prohibition on the Use of Controlled Substances in Soap,
Synthetic Detergent and Other Cleaning Agents) Order 1995 [P.U (A) 115/95]
• Environmental Quality (Control Of Emission From Diesel Engines) Regulations 1996
[P.U (A) 429/96]
ƒ Environmental Quality (Control Of Emission From Petrol Engines) Regulations 1996 [
( ) 3/96] [P.U (A) 543/96]
• Environmental Quality (Refrigerant Management) Regulations 1999 [P.U (A) 451/99]
• Environmental Quality (Halon Management) Regulations 1999 [P.U (A) 452/99]
• Environmental Quality (Delegation of Power) Order 1999 [P.U (A) 501/99]
• Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities) (Opening Burning) Order 2000 [P.U (A)
308/2000]
• Environmental Quality (Clean Air) (Amendment) Regulations 2000 [P.U (A) 309/2000]
ƒ Environmental Quality (Compounding of Offences) (Open Burning) Rules 2000 [P.U
ƒ (A) 310/2000]
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Delegation of Powers) (Investigation of Open Burning)
ƒ Order 2000 [P.U (A) 311/2000]
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Sewage and Industrial Effluents) (Amendment) Regulations
ƒ 2000 [P.U (A) 398/2000]
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Control Of Emission From Diesel Engines) (Amendment)
ƒ Rules 2000 [P.U (A) 488/2000]
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities) (Environmental Impact Assessment)
ƒ (Amendment) Order 2000 [P.U (A) 489/2000]
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Delegations of Powers) (Halon Management) Order 2000
ƒ [P.U (A) 490/2000]
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Delegations of Powers) (Perbadanan Putrajaya) Order 2002
ƒ [P.U (A) 233/2002]
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Appeal Board) Regulations 2003
ƒ • Environmental Quality (Declared Activities) (Open Burning) Order 2003
Other Associated Legislation
• Exclusive Economic Zone Act, 1984
• Custom Duties (Amendment) (No.35) Order 1989 (made under the
Customs Act 1967)
• Promotion of Investment (Promoted Activities and Products)
(Amendment) (No.10) Order 1990 (made under the Promotion of
Investment Act, 1986)
• Customs (Prohibition of Import) (Amendment) (No.2) Order 1993
• Customs (Prohibition of Export) (Amendment) (No.3) Order 1993
• Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment (Prescribed Activities)
Order 1994
• Sabah Conservation of Environment (Prescribed Activities) Order
1999
• Exclusive Economic Zone (Appointment of Authoritized Officer) Order
2001[P.U. (A) 35/2001]
ƒ What is Environmental Impact Assessment?
The aim of the environmental impact assessment is to
assess the overall impact on the environment of
development projects proposed by the public and private
sectors. The objectives of environmental impact
assessment are:
1. To examine and select the best from the project options
available;
2. To identify and incorporate into the project plan
appropriate abatement and mitigating measures;
3. To predict significant residual environmental impacts;
4. To determine the significant residual environmental
impacts predicted; and
5. To identify the environmental costs and benefits of the
project to the community.
Why do we need EIA?
ƒ EIA is essentially a planning tool for preventing
environmental problems due to an action.
ƒ It seeks to avoid costly mistakes in project
implementation, either because of the
environmental damages that are likely to arise
during project implementation, or because of
modifications that may be required subsequently
in order to make the action environmentally
acceptable.
ƒ In Malaysia, EIA is required under section 34A,
Environmental Quality Act, 1974.
How to conduct EIA?
ƒ To assist you in the preparation of
environmental impact assessment reports,
you may refer to "A Handbook of
Environmental Impact Assessment
Guidelines" and
ƒ EIA guidelines for specific activities
published by the Department of
Environment.
What are the EIA procedures?
ƒ The EIA procedure adopted in Malaysia
consists of three major steps. The steps in
the EIA procedure are as follows:
1. Preliminary assessment of all prescribed
activities;
2. Detailed assessment of those prescribed
activities for which significant residual
environmental impacts have been
predicted in the preliminary assessment;
3. Review of assessment reports.
ƒ A Preliminary Assessment should normally be initiated
during the early stages of project planning.
ƒ Standard Procedural Steps are provided and the
assessment might be conducted "in house", or by a
consultant. Some form of public participation is
mandatory.
ƒ Environmental data collection may be necessary and
close liaison between the assessor and relevant
environment related agencies is encouraged.
ƒ The results of Preliminary Assessment are reported
formally for examination and approval by the Quality.
ƒ Preliminary Assessment requires resources that are a
small proportion of the man-hours, money, skills and
equipment committed to a pre-feasibility study and the
assessment should be completed within the time frame
of that study.
Detailed Assessment
The objectives of Detailed Assessment for prescribed activities with
potentially significant residual environmental impact include:
1. to describe the significant residual environmental impacts predicted from the
final
project plan;
2. to specify mitigating and abatement measures in the final project plan; and
3. to identify the environmental costs and benefits of the project to the
community.

Detailed Assessment should continue during project planning until the project
plan is finalised. Standard procedural steps are provided and specific terms
of reference based on the results of Preliminary Assessment are issued for
each project.

The Assessment might be conducted "in house" or by a consultant.

The assessment method is selected according to the nature of the project;

some form of public participation is required.

Environmental data collection is almost certainly necessary.

The results of Detailed Assessment is reported formally.

The EIA Review Process
The objectives of Review for Prescribed Activities subjected to Detailed Assessment
include:
1. to critically review the Detailed Assessment reports;
2. to evaluate development and environmental costs and benefits of the final project plan;
and
3. to formulate recommendations and guidelines to the project approving authority
relevant to the implementation of the project.

Review of EIA Reports is carried out internally by the DOE with the assistance from the
relevant technical agencies for preliminary assessment reports and by an ad hoc Review
Panel for detailed assessment reports.
Recommendations arising out of the review are transmitted to the relevant project
approving authorities for consideration in making a decision on the project. According
to the DOE's Client Charter, the period allocated for a review of a term of reference
(TOR) and EIA report are as follows:

Term of Reference - 2 months

Preliminary EIA Report - 3 months
Detailed EIA REport - 5 months

The DOE maintains a list of experts who may be called upon to sit as members of any
Review Panel established. The selection of the experts depends on the areas of
environmental impacts to be reviewed.
EIA Process
ƒ The way in which an EIA is carried out is not
rigid: it is a process comprising a series of
steps. These steps are outlined below and the
techniques more commonly used in EIA are
described in some detail in the section
Techniques. The main steps in the EIA process
are:
ƒ • screening
• scoping
• prediction and mitigation
• management and monitoring
• audit
What are the steps of the EIA?
ƒ Preliminary Assessment
The objectives of Preliminary Assessment
for prescribed activities are:
• to examine and select the best from the
project options available.
• to identify and incorporate into the project
plan appropriate abatement and mitigating
measures.
• to identify significant residual
environmental impacts.
ƒ Figure 1 shows a general flow diagram of the EIA process, how it
fits in with parallel technical and economic studies and the role of
public participation. In some cases, such as small-scale irrigation
schemes, the transition from identification through to detailed
design may be rapid and some steps in the EIA procedure may be
omitted.

• Screening often results in a categorization of the project and from

this a decision is made on whether or not a full EIA is to be carried
out.
• Scoping is the process of determining which are the most critical
issues to study and will involve community participation to some
degree. It is at this early stage that EIA can most strongly
influence the outline proposal.
• Detailed prediction and mitigation studies follow scoping and are
carried out in parallel with feasibility studies.
• The main output report is called an Environmental Impact
Statement, and contains a detailed plan for managing and
monitoring environmental impacts both during and after
implementation.
• Finally, an audit of the EIA process is carried out some time after
implementation. The audit serves a useful feedback and learning
function.
Resources
ƒ An EIA team for an irrigation and drainage study is likely to be
composed of some or all of the following:
ƒ a team leader; a hydrologist; an irrigation/drainage engineer; a
fisheries biologist/ecologist; an agronomist/pesticide expert; a soil
conservation expert; a biological/environmental scientist; an
economist, a social scientist and a health scientist (preferably a
epidemiologist).
ƒ The final structure of the team will vary depending on the project.
ƒ Specialists may also be required for fieldwork, laboratory testing,
library research, data processing, surveys and modelling.
ƒ The team leader will require significant management skill to co-
ordinate the work of a team with diverse skills and knowledge.
Resource – cont.

ƒ The length of the EIA will obviously depend on the

programme, plan or project under review.
ƒ However, the process usually lasts from between 6 and
18 months from preparation through to review.
ƒ It will normally be approximately the same length as
the feasibility study of which it should form an integral
part.
ƒ It is essential that the EIA team and the team carrying
out the feasibility study work together and not in
isolation from each other.
ƒ This often provides the only opportunity for design
changes to be made and mitigation measures to be
incorporated in the project design.
Screening
ƒ Screening is the process of deciding on whether an EIA is required.
ƒ This may be determined by size (eg greater than a predetermined
surface area of irrigated land that would be affected, more than a
certain percentage or flow to be diverted or more than a certain
capital expenditure).
ƒ Alternatively it may be based on site-specific information.
ƒ For example, the repair of a recently destroyed diversion structure is
unlikely to require an EIA whilst a major new headwork structure may.
ƒ Guidelines for whether or not an EIA is required will be country
specific depending on the laws or norms in operation.
ƒ Legislation often specifies the criteria for screening and full EIA.
ƒ All major donors screen projects presented for financing to decide
whether an EIA is required.
ƒ The output from the screening process is often a document called an
Initial Environmental Examination or Evaluation (IEE).
ƒ The main conclusion will be a classification of the project according
to its likely environmental sensitivity.
ƒ This will determine whether an EIA is needed and if so to what detail.
Scoping
ƒ Scoping is important for two reasons.
ƒ First, so that problems can be pinpointed early
allowing mitigating design changes to be made
before expensive detailed work is carried out.
ƒ Second, to ensure that detailed prediction work is
only carried out for important issues.
ƒ It is not the purpose of an EIA to carry out
exhaustive studies on all environmental impacts
for all projects.
ƒ If key issues are identified and a full scale EIA
considered necessary then the scoping should
include terms of reference for these further
studies.
ƒ A major activity of scoping is to identify key interest
groups, both governmental and non-governmental, and to
establish good lines of communication.
ƒ People who are affected by the project need to hear about it as
soon as possible.
ƒ Their knowledge and perspectives may have a major bearing on
the focus of the EIA.
ƒ Rapid rural appraisal techniques provide a means of assessing the
needs and views of the affected population.
ƒ The main EIA techniques used in scoping are baseline
studies, checklists, matrices and network diagrams.
ƒ These techniques collect and present knowledge and
information in a straightforward way so that logical
decisions can be made about which impacts are most
significant.
Prediction and mitigation
ƒ Once the scoping exercise is complete and the major
impacts to be studied have been identified, prediction work
can start.
ƒ This stage forms the central part of an EIA. Several major
options are likely to have been proposed either at the
scoping stage or before and each option may require
separate prediction studies.
ƒ Realistic and affordable mitigating measures cannot be
proposed without first estimating the scope of the impacts,
which should be in monetary terms wherever possible.
ƒ It then becomes important to quantify the impact of the
suggested improvements by further prediction work.
ƒ Clearly, options need to be discarded as soon as their
unsuitability can be proved or alternatives shown to be
superior in environmental or economic terms, or both.
ƒ It is also important to test the "without project" scenario.
ƒ An important outcome of this stage will be
recommendations for mitigating measures.
ƒ This would be contained in the Environmental
Impact Statement.
ƒ Clearly the aim will be to introduce measures
which minimize any identified adverse impacts and
enhance positive impacts.
ƒ Formal and informal communication links need to be
established with teams carrying out feasibility studies so
that their work can take proposals into account.
ƒ Similarly, feasibility studies may indicate that some
options are technically or economically
unacceptable and thus environmental prediction
work for these options will not be required.
ƒ By the time prediction and mitigation are undertaken, the
project preparation will be advanced and a decision will
most likely have been made to proceed with the project.
ƒ Considerable expenditure may have already been made
and budgets allocated for the implementation of the
project.
ƒ Major changes could be disruptive to project processing
and only accepted if prediction shows that impacts will be
considerably worse than originally identified at the scoping
stage.
ƒ For example, an acceptable measure might be to alter the mode of
operation of a reservoir to protect downstream fisheries, but a
measure proposing an alternative to dam construction could be
highly contentious at this stage. To avoid conflict it is important that
the EIA process commences early in the project cycle.
 Monitoring
ƒ The purpose of monitoring is to compare predicted and
actual impacts, particularly if the impacts are either very
important or the scale of the impact cannot be very
accurately predicted.
ƒ The results of monitoring can be used to manage the
environment, particularly to highlight problems early so that
action can be taken.
ƒ The range of parameters requiring monitoring may be
broad or narrow and will be dictated by the 'prediction and
mitigation' stage of the EIA.
ƒ Typical areas of concern where monitoring is weak are:
water quality, both inflow and outflow; stress in sensitive
ecosystems; soil fertility, particularly salinization problems;
water related health hazards; equity of water distributions;
groundwater levels.
ƒ Monitoring should not be seen as an open-ended commitment
to collect data. If the need for monitoring ceases, data
collection should cease.
ƒ Conversely, monitoring may reveal the need for more intensive
study and the institutional infrastructure must be sufficiently
flexible to adapt to changing demands.
ƒ The information obtained from monitoring and management
can be extremely useful for future EIAs, making them both
more accurate and more efficient.
ƒ The Environmental Management Plan needs to not only
include clear recommendations for action and the procedures
for their implementation but must also define a programme and
costs.
ƒ It must be quite clear exactly how management and mitigation
methods are phased with project implementation and when
costs will be incurred.
ƒ Mitigation and management measures will not be adopted
unless they can be shown to be practicable and good value for
money.
ƒ The plan should also stipulate that if, during project
implementation, major changes are introduced, or if the project
is aborted, the EIA procedures will be re-started to evaluate the
effect of such actions.
 Auditing
ƒ In order to capitalise on the experience and knowledge gained, the last
stage of an EIA is to carry out an Environmental Audit some time
after completion of the project or implementation of a programme.
ƒ It will therefore usually be done by a separate team of specialists to
that working on the bulk of the EIA.
ƒ The audit should include an analysis of the technical, procedural and
decision-making aspects of the EIA.
ƒ Technical aspects include: the adequacy of the baseline studies, the
accuracy of predictions and the suitability of mitigation measures.
ƒ Procedural aspects include: the efficiency of the procedure, the
fairness of the public involvement measures and the degree of
coordination of roles and responsibilities.
ƒ Decision-making aspects include: the utility of the process for decision
making and the implications for development, (adapted from Sadler in
Wathern, 1988).
ƒ The audit will determine whether recommendations and requirements
made by the earlier EIA steps were incorporated successfully into
project implementation.
ƒ Lessons learnt and formally described in an audit can greatly assist in
future EIAs and build up the expertise and efficiency of the concerned
institutions.
 Public participation
ƒ Projects or programmes have significant impacts on the local population.
ƒ Whilst the aim is to improve the well being of the population, a lack of
understanding of the people and their society may result in development that
has considerable negative consequences.
ƒ More significantly, there may be divergence between national economic
interests and those of the local population.
ƒ For example, the need to increase local rice production to satisfy
increasing consumption in the urban area may differ from the needs as
perceived by the local farmers. To allow for this, public participation in the
planning process is essential. The EIA provides an ideal forum for checking
that the affected public have been adequately consulted and their views
taken into account in project preparation.
ƒ The level of consultation will vary depending on the type of plan or project.
ƒ New projects involving resettlement or displacement will require the most
extensive public participation.
ƒ As stated before, the purpose of an EIA is to improve projects and this, to
some extent, can only be achieved by involving those people directly or
indirectly affected.
ƒ The value of environmental amenities is not absolute and consensus is one
way of establishing values.
ƒ Public consultation will reveal new information, improve understanding and
enable better choices to be made.
ƒ Without consultation, legitimate issues may not be heard, leading to conflict
and unsustainability.
Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS)
ƒ An EIS typically has four sections:
ƒ An Introduction including a statement of the Purpose and Need of the
Proposed Action.
ƒ A description of the Affected Environment.
ƒ A Range of Alternatives to the proposed action. Alternatives are
considered the "heart" of the EIS.
ƒ An analysis of the environmental impacts of each of the possible
alternatives.
ƒ Not all federal actions require a full EIS. If the action is not
likely to cause a significant impact the agency may
prepare a smaller, shorter document called an
Environmental Assessment (EA).
ƒ However, EAs are only appropriate if there will be "no
significant impact."