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Public Participation and Consultation
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G. Public Participation and Consultation
In accordance with provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On the Environmental Review” the developers submit project documentation for environmental review and in case of need organize and finance the additional investigations, survey work and expert appraisal, guarantee the reliability of environmental screening, ensure openness and take public opinion about the planned or effected activities into consideration. Documentation, which is submitted for environmental review should include assessment of possible social consequences.
At the stage of identification of the location of the object the developer and executor of environmental impact assessment prepare and agree Declaration of intent. Declaration contains overall characteristics of the enterprise, basic technical and technological data, information about the need for resources when construction and exploitation of the object, necessary transportation facilities, the list of the main predicted impacts of the project on the environment, scoping of EIA.
Declaration of intent is submitted by the developer to local authorities for supervision and (in case of need) consultations with general public.
At the suggestion of territorial communes local councils arrange consultations and public opinion polls as for the problems of common concern, including the issues of environment protection.
EIA materials should include separate subsection – characteristics of social environment and assessment of impact of the project on social environment.
This subsection should contain general social characteristics of local population resided in the areas of impact of projected activity and assessment of living conditions, evaluation of positive and negative impact of the process of construction and exploitation of the object on social conditions and satisfaction of needs of local population. The content should include substantiation of measures directed to the prevention of change for the worse the living conditions of local population, consideration of compensation measures, information about the opinion of general public as for projected activity and the problems, which should be solved in this connection.
Development of project documentation involves preparation of Environmental Impact Statement as the summary of EIA. In case of the projects, which represent the advanced ecological hazard this Statement should be made public in mass media (radio, TV, newspapers) prior the submission of project documentation for state environmental review.
In order to take into account public opinion the subjects of environmental review can arrange public hearings or public sittings. Participation of general public in the process of environmental review can take place by means of production of statements in mass media, written submissions, proposals and criticism, participation of representatives of general public in the work of expert committees, groups for making public environmental review. In addition public environmental review is legally provided in Ukraine (Article 16 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Environmental Review”.
At the same time in accordance with Ukrainian legislation the decisions of public environmental review have the advisory nature and can be followed voluntarily. In case competent state environmental authorities consider these decisions as necessary and advisable, they can be taken into consideration in the process of decision making.
In 1999-2000 environmental impact assessment demonstration project was realized in Ukraine within the framework of United Nations Development Programme. It was implemented on the basis of Pasichniansky oil-gas condensate field, which at that moment was the model of public participation in EIA process at different stages of project development.
In particular, within the framework of this project Declaration of intent included information about the time and the place of the first meeting for the consultations on this issue in order to inform inhabitants of the region where and when general public can take place in the EIA process. This Declaration was passed by the developer to local authorities in order to be made public (on a contractual basis) through mass media: radio, TV, press, posters, leaflets (information messages) addressed to the relevant interested organizations.
The community committee for supervision of project realization was established at the first meeting of interested parties. It included representatives of the developer, non-government organizations, local authorities, mass media, some most active interested individuals, etc. The committee identified the circle of issues of the most serious concern of general public. These issues were processed and classified. The committee defined the most efficient methods of dissemination of information, established information points in various places of different inhabited localities. Information points were equipped with information stands, bulletin boards, which represented plans of public participation, issues formulated by inhabitants in the course of the first meeting (hearings), addresses of all information points, contact phone numbers, points where local population could submit their requests and proposals.
The community committee identified time of all public hearings as for the results of EIA, assisted the activity of information points, summarized the information obtained, identified time of the meetings in order to inform general public on the issues of concern, assisted in organization of the final meeting of interested parties.
In Ukraine in case of EIA of the objects with predicted transboundary impact the aspects of environmental assessment, which need study and corresponding measures include any predicted significant change of qualitative indices (excess of normatives of maximum allowable concentration for water, air, soil established in the state of impact) or quantitative (which are to be prevented without fail) indices, which characterize one or another component of environment beyond the boundary of the country of origin of this impact.
In Ukraine it is recognized that transboundary impact on the environment is really possible only by means of pollutants transport:
- by air masses;
- by water (by water course, sea current, underground water);
- through the encroachment of excessive mass of water (technogenic floods) as well as thin pulp, caused by emergencies at various waterworks (storage ponds, sludge pits, tailing pits);
- systematic groundwater outflow of underground water-bearing horizon when formation of large depression funnels (centralized water withdrawal of high capacity, intensive pit and mine drainage);
- while pipeline transportation (oil pipeline, ammonia line, etc.) of potentially hazardous substances (in the event of emergencies);
- in case of forest fire, other types of fire spread, underground burning of peat initiated by potential fire risk sources;
- in case on unregulated circulation of transgene (genetically modified) plants and other biological objects;
- when execution of transboundary transportation of toxic and hazardous waste and other substances by sea, river, railway and motor transport.
The largest spatial scale (territorial spread) are typical for transboundary impacts caused by the activity of big industrial enterprises and companies.
Transport of pollutants by air masses is the most unmanageable and nonlocalizable way of transboundary impact.
Identification of real possibility of transboundary impact, its concrete ways, direction and expected scale is made at the initial stages of EIA of investment objects.
According to regulations adopted by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine the issues of possible transboundary pollution are considered in case of:
- development of investment objects, which will have air emissions within boundary zones or nearby the borders (up to 20 km inclusive away from the boundary) – in all cases;
- location of investment objects on the banks of transboundary rivers – in the event that neighbouring country is located downstream of the object – when the distance from the object to the boundary (along the stream) makes up not less than 50 km;
- development of investment objects in littoral zone at the distance of less than 100 km from the boundary of neighbouring country – in case of waste water discharge to offshore water, possibility of chemical pollution of the latter (in the event of emergency);
- construction of high-capacity water withdrawal (from underground water) or the enterprises of mineral resource industry, connected with the need of considerable local unwatering as a result of pit or mine drainage – when calculated and predicted sizes of depression funnels transgress the bounds of the frontier;
- design of transboundary product pipelines – in all cases (only in the aspects related the emergency);
- transboundary transportation of hazardous substances, which pose a threat to environment – in all cases (only in the aspects of possible emergency).
In every particular case only the component of environment, which according to the prediction will be exposed to the direct impact extended beyond the border of the country of its origin should be the object of environmental assessment.
