New Environmental Assessment Act in Castilla-La Mancha

The new Environmental Assessment Act in Castilla-La Mancha has already been published:

Law 2/2020, of February 7, on the Environmental Assessment of Castilla-La Mancha.

The new law contains 71 articles in three titles, two additional provisions, a transitory provision, a derogatory provision and two final provisions, in addition to having six annexes.

Entry into force of the new law

This new law will take effect 20 days after its publication, that is, on March 4, 2020, applying to plans, programs and projects whose evaluation begins on that day.

It will mean the repeal of the relevant regulations currently in force in Castilla-La Mancha:

• Law 4/2007, of 08/03/2007, of the Courts of Castilla-La Mancha, on Environmental Assessment in Castilla-La Mancha.
• Decree 178/2002, of 17/12/2002, which approves the General Regulations for the Development of Law 5/1999, of April 8, on the Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Castilla-La Mancha, and its Annexes are adapted.

Why is this new law necessary?

The new Environmental Assessment Act in Castilla-La Mancha is necessary, among other reasons, to:

• Adapt regional regulations in this area to state legislation (Law 21/2013, of December 9, on environmental assessment and Law 9/2018, of December 5, which modifies the previous one).
• Autonomous legislative development, within the basic state framework, for the resolution of regulatory deficiencies and interpretation problems detected in the more than five years of application of Law 21/2013.
• Establish the regulation of environmental assessment of plans, programs and projects that may have significant effects on the environment, guaranteeing a high level of environmental protection throughout the territory of Castilla-La Mancha, in order to promote sustainable development.

Objectives of the new law

The fundamental purpose of this law is to establish the regulation of the environmental evaluation of plans, programs and projects in Castilla-La Mancha that may have significant effects on the environment, guaranteeing a high level of environmental protection throughout the Castilian-Manchego territory, in order to promote sustainable development, the specific objectives being the following:

• Legal certainty and clarity: simplifying the interpretation of environmental assessment regulations for the multiple actors involved in the procedures, avoiding legal insecurity and lack of clarity.
• Adapting to the Castilian-La Mancha reality and expanding the level of protection: extending the need to apply environmental impact assessment to more categories of projects than the basic state standard.
• Improve, specify, develop and correct basic aspects of the state standard.

Highlights of the new law

• More categories of projects are added for which the procedure of environmental assessment than those provided for in the state standard. The categories are also modified with respect to those established in the previous Law 4/2007. The categories of projects are set out in annexes I and II of the Act.
• Higher requirements for the evaluation of projects derived from Law 9/2018: analysis in situations of serious accidents or catastrophes, which are now incorporated into the required content of environmental documents and environmental impact studies.
• The evaluation of plans, programs and projects that may significantly affect a Natura 2000 Network space, even if they are not located inside it, either individually or in combination with others, will include the appropriate evaluation of their repercussions within the procedures. The same requirement will apply in the event that they may significantly affect the rest of the areas protected by the Law 9/1999, of May 26, on nature conservation. The promoters may obtain a report from the competent body for the management of these spaces, in which they will confirm whether or not there is an appreciable condition, which will also be responsible for establishing the necessary compensatory measures if necessary.
• When the project may cause a long-term hydro-morphological modification in a surface water body or a level alteration in a groundwater body, a specific section will be included for the evaluation of its long-term repercussions on the affected water bodies.
• Personal data must be excluded from the documentation, detailing them only in the requests themselves.
• The sponsor must ensure that the documents for the procedures are prepared by people with sufficient technical capacity in accordance with the standards on professional qualifications and higher education, and must be of the quality and completeness necessary to meet the requirements.
• The environmental authority may issue a termination resolution when, during the procedure, the environmental viability of the plan, program or project becomes unequivocally apparent, provided that environmental integration is not possible through appropriate preventive, corrective or compensatory measures that may be incorporated. Previously, the environmental body will give an audience to the promoter, informing the substantive body of this.
• In general, each environmental impact assessment procedure should refer to a single project. However, the environmental authority may agree to the cumulation of procedures when the circumstances indicated in article 57 of the Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations.
• In general, within the ordinary environmental impact assessment procedure, the substantive body will carry out public information and consultation procedures, which will be valid for 1 year from their completion. The technical analysis of the environmental impact file and the formulation of the environmental impact statement will be carried out within 4 months, counting from the full receipt of the environmental impact file, a period that may be extended for an additional 2 months in a justified manner.
• The environmental impact study will lose its validity if it has not been submitted within 1 year from the date of its conclusion.
• When the sponsor receives the reports of the results of the public information and consultations, he will have a maximum period of 3 months to send a response to the substantive body. If you do not send a reply within that period, the file will be declared to expire.
• In the simplified evaluation, the environmental authority will have a maximum period of 3 months to formulate the environmental impact report counting from the receipt of the initiation request and the documents that must accompany it, which it may extend for an additional 45 business days on a reasoned basis. The substantive body will send the request for initiation and the documents to the environmental body within a maximum period of 1 month from the receipt of the complete documentation. The environmental body will formulate the inquiries to the Administrations and interested persons, who must decide within a maximum period of 30 days.
• The environmental impact declaration and report expire after 4 years if the execution of the project or activity has not started (material start of the works or assembly of the facilities after obtaining all the required authorizations), unless the extension of the validity for an additional 2 years is agreed, to be requested before the expiry of the 4-year period. For these purposes, the promoter of a project under evaluation must communicate the start date of execution to the substantive and environmental body.
• The failure to issue environmental declarations and reports within the legally established deadlines is not equivalent to a favorable environmental assessment.
• Section 3 of Chapter II regulates the coordination of environmental impact assessment with integrated environmental authorization, including:
  • When a project must be subject to ordinary environmental impact assessment and integrated environmental authorization (AAI), the developer will submit a single request to the competent body to issue the integrated environmental authorization, which will perform the functions assigned to the substantive body in the processing of the environmental impact assessment. This will also apply to the processing of substantial amendments to the AAI.
  • Prior to the submission of the AAI application, the mandatory phase of the document covering the scope of the environmental impact study or the processing of the simplified assessment, as appropriate, will be carried out directly to the competent body to issue the integrated environmental authorization. This will also apply to the processing of substantial amendments to the AAI.
  • In the case of communications of non-substantial modifications to the AAI subject to simplified evaluation, the communication will be accompanied by the request to initiate such evaluation to the body competent to issue the AAI. If an ordinary evaluation were eventually required, the amendment to the AAI would be considered substantial.
  • Mandatory public information for the processing of the AAI or its substantial modifications and for ordinary evaluations will be carried out jointly.
  • The publication of environmental impact statements or reports must take place before the issuance of the corresponding resolutions on the AAI.

• Section 4 of Chapter II regulates the coordination of environmental impact assessment with administrative procedures for activities potentially polluting the atmosphere.
• The procedures regulated by this law will be carried out electronically in the terms established in Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations.
• Resolutions of the environmental body on environmental reports that put an end to environmental evaluations of plans and programs carried out in accordance with Law 4/2007 that are published in the DOCM after the entry into force of this law will have a maximum validity of 2 years, being regulated as to their validity in the same terms as contemplated by the new law for strategic environmental declarations, including their possible extension.
• The resolutions of the environmental body considering that it is not necessary to prepare an environmental sustainability report issued in accordance with Law 4/2007 published in the DOCM after the entry into force of this law will have a maximum validity of 4 years, being regulated as to their validity in the same terms as contemplated by the new law for strategic environmental declarations, without the possibility of extension. This period will be four years from the entry into force of this law in the case of those that had been published prior to it, without their extension being possible either.
• The regulation of the validity of declarations and environmental impact reports contemplated in the new law applies to all those that are published after its entry into force.
• The regulation of the amendment contemplated in the new law will apply to all decisions issued in accordance with Law 4/2007.

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