Learn to read an Environmental Impact Statement in 2 minutes

Perhaps at this very moment you have that precious profession in your hands. A favorable resolution from the environmental body. The long-awaited last link in a succession of administrative procedures: prior consultations, drafting of a study, addenda, public information, etc. All this to obtain the Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) of the project.

Or maybe it's not called that, and it has an Environmental Impact Statement, a Unified Environmental Authorization,... that recognizes the final resolution of a regulated Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) project.

In either case, you proceed to analyze the content. With the joy of the event, he delves into reading the more than ten or fifteen (or more) pages of the resolution. And as the chapters follow each other, he does not know if what has been obtained is a favorable authorization, or a compilation of sectoral and repetitive requirements, accompanied by their corresponding decrees, orders,..., accompanied by a history of milestones, and comments from official bodies and local entities. And that generates the concern of not knowing if what has been completed is a stage, or is it the beginning of a network of administrative channels that open up in a chain and successive manner.

Faced with this new circumstance, proceed to enter the question that gives title to these lines in your header web browser. Within it, you can see that a series of regulatory, technical, encyclopedic and jurisprudential references appear. But none of them details the use, application, validity and interpretation of this important environmental resolution. Even if you are looking for the meaning of these three DIA letters, as acronyms or acronyms, there is no single consensual definition.

Therefore, before continuing, it is necessary to unify a criterion in legislative matters, and this reference must be provided to us by the published standard, which throughout Spain falls under Law 21/2013, of December 9, on Environmental Assessment (Official State Gazette No. 296, of December 11, 2013). According to which, it is defined as:

“Environmental Impact Statement”: mandatory and decisive report of the environmental body with which the ordinary environmental impact assessment concludes, which evaluates the integration of environmental aspects into the project and determines the conditions that must be established for the adequate protection of the environment and natural resources during the execution and exploitation and, where appropriate, the dismantling or demolition of the project.

If you have been identified in this dramatization, we recommend that you continue reading this article, in which you can find some keys to interpreting and understanding a DIA.

The idea is that after this reading, you know how to identify what the environmental body has decided to transfer to you, and to the substantive body, so that your project is environmentally viable.

So you should know and know some aspects of this environmental resolution:

A DIA can be modified. If a discrepancy is detected in the content between the provisions of the environmental body and the substantive, the corresponding resolution of the discrepancy may be submitted within the first thirty business days after its publication, and through the substantive body.

A DIA must include a minimum content, which together with the obligation to be published in official newspapers and media available to the environmental body, are regulated by national legislation:

a) The identification of the project promoter and the substantive body, and the description of the project.

b) The summary of the outcome of the public information process and of the consultations with the affected public administrations and interested persons, and how they have been taken into consideration.

c) The summary of the technical analysis carried out by the environmental body.

d) If appropriate, the conditions to be established and the measures to prevent, correct and, where appropriate, compensate for adverse effects on the environment.

e) The compensatory measures that must be established in the event of the circumstances provided for in article 45 of Law 42/2007, of December 13, on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity.

(f) The environmental monitoring program.

g) If appropriate, the creation of a monitoring commission.

h) In the case of periodic transactions, the motivation for the decision and the deadline to which the tenth additional provision refers.

These eight points are specified in three parts or bodies of the DIA: Description, Evaluation and Resolution. On which, we indicate our comments, and recommendations:

Description: (a) + (b). It corresponds to the background, processes, details and phases of the procedure and the project.

• Within these points, it should be noted that the inclusion of information within these sections, and not endorsed in the other two parts of the DIA, is mere information.
• In the same way, the information collected here by the administration, and that does not fit the project, may be subject to discrepancy.

Evaluation: (c). Chapter in which the environmental body details the analysis of the affected factors and actions that will generate the expected impacts in the environmental documentation studied.

• It is important to review and know how to interpret the legislation indicated in each of the parties, in order to analyze if it is in force, and if it is mandatory. Since this is one of the assumptions by which a DIA can be modified.

Resolution: (d) + (e) + (f) + (g) + (h). A set of actions aimed at controlling and compensating the conditions detected.

• These last chapters usually include technical proposals for the control, monitoring and compensation of project actions, which may represent a high increase in the execution and/or maintenance budget. It is essential to evaluate this cost, and to include these items in the document approved by the substantive body.

Following these guidelines, we believe that it will be easier for them to interpret and apply a DIA.

And we remind you that although a DIA can be modified, as established in point 4 of Article 41: “The environmental impact statement will not be subject to appeal without prejudice to those who, if appropriate, proceed through administrative and judicial channels in the face of the act authorizing the project”

Therefore, in all processes and phases of this environmental process, having the help of environmental advisors will make it easier for you to predict and defend the environmental, economic and social viability of your project.