The Rivne District Administrative Court canceled a positive conclusion on Kronospan’s environmental impact assessment procedure (EIA) near Rivne. It was issued by the Department of Ecology of the Rivne Regional State Administration, which made the construction of the potentially dangerous woodworking enterprise possible.
The court’s decision didn’t enter into force due to Kronospan’s and the Department’s appeals to the Lviv Administrative Court of Appeal. On August 19, Kronospan published a statement on the new EIA procedure.
NGO “Ecoclub” has analyzed this notice and prepared proposals for implementing a new environmental impact assessment procedure of Kronospan. In this article, we overview our requirements for the process of the new EIA procedure.
What do we demand
The first Kronospan report had received more than 15 comments and remarks from the publicity. EIA report`s developers approved only part of them.
To make the new report more accessible and understandable, the document should contain the information about:
– preparatory construction processes;
– quantity of emissions, methods of monitoring, plans and technologies for their reduction and actions in case of emergencies;
– amount, classes, and characteristics of used natural resources;
– the impact on biodiversity, microclimate, and information on the sanitary protection zone;
– measures of environmental management, circular economy, and planned results of an implementation of ecological innovations.
“We think it is necessary to reveal more deeply the planned activities related to the preparation of construction, its implementation, and further operation of the industrial area. This significantly affects the production. EIA must ensure the acceptable impact of activities on the environment and locals”, – said Ecoclub`s project coordinator Natalia Kholodova.
Impact on the environment
In the previous EIA report, Kronospan noted the absence of objects which belong to the nature reserve fund. Developers have not analyzed the influence on animals and plants which belong to Red Book or regionally rare species.
The Ecocenter from the Palace of Children and Youth has repeatedly emphasized the influence of manufacturing activities on a forest reserve “Pavlivshchyna,” which has unique biodiversity (more information about the impact on flora and fauna you can read here). Kronospan decided to ignore these remarks.
Ecoclub considers necessity to describe following information in new EIA procedure:
– describe in detail the impact of production on the adjacent territories within the sanitary protection zone, residential zones, and objects of the nature reserve fund;
– detail the information about how much water, land, forest and other resources will be used for the plant`s construction, add their qualitative characteristics and strategy for cleaning or restoration;
– conduct more profound assessments of the impact on climate change, adding adaptation and mitigation measures.
Impact on society
The actions of the woodworking factory have an impact on the social structure, in particular on the health of the population, their employment, and the business.
Therefore, Ecoclub proposes:
– make the assessment of the planned activity’s impact on the region’s socio-economic conditions, including small and medium-sized businesses, the potential loss of jobs, or a change in the number of tax revenues due to increased competition in the wood market;
– describe the risks of the development of carcinogenic effects and the current level of morbidity.
You can read the full list of recommendations prepared by the Ecoclub here.