Abstract :
A nine-step procedure for auditing environmental impact assessments (EIA) identifies the actual impacts that appear to result from a project and uses simple field and office techniques to determine whether those impacts were properly characterized in the EIA. This is more practical than audit procedures commonly described in the literature, which view EIA predictions as scientific hypotheses to be evaluated through rigorous statistical tests and experimental controls. The proposed method can be thought of as an “impacts-backward” approach, in contrast to the scientific or “predictions-forward” method.Application of the procedure to EIAs for coal mines in the south-central United States found a need for: (1) more effective scoping of small projects, to identify project- and site-specific impact issues and (2) more complete discussion of mitigation measures, including exactly who is responsible for ensuring mitigation, and why the proposed mitigation is expected to be successful. Formal mitigation tracking is a specific audit tool that would be of value to EIA practitioners.
