Environmental Impact Study
Integral project for the production and export of green ammonia - HNH Energy
As a project, we have entered our Environmental Impact Study (EIA by its acronym in Spanish) into the Environmental Assessment System, but what does this whole process mean?
Here we answer some of the most frequently asked questions.
It is an Environmental Impact Study. This is a document that is presented when a project recognizes that it will produce significant impacts on the environment or that there is a risk of them occurring. For that reason, it is a longer process (between a year or two, normally) where the authority requests the owner –in this case, HNH Energy– different mitigation, repair or compensation measures to take charge of these impacts.
The Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA by its acronym in Spanish) is an environmental management instrument of a preventive nature, regulated in Law No. 19,300 on General Bases of the Environment, and its Regulations, defined as a procedure, in charge of the Environmental Evaluation Service, which, on the basis of an Environmental Impact Study or Declaration, determines whether the environmental impact of an activity or project complies with current regulations. It has been in force in Chile since April 3, 1997.
Within the SEIA, there are different State Administration Bodies with Environmental Competence (OAECA by its acronym in Spanish), which, depending on the region of the project or activity, will be in charge of evaluating the EIA. Among them, the following stand out: Seremi de Salud, General Directorate of Water, Municipalities, Regional Government, Seremi de Medio Ambiente, among others.
According to the information provided by the SEA, any project or activity that generates significant impacts, –that is, effects, characteristics or circumstances indicated in article 11 of the Law, and detailed in articles 4 to 10 of the Regulations– must submit an Environmental Impact Study.
In this sense, any project that contemplates the following significant effects must present an EIA:
- Risk to the health of the population, due to the quantity and quality of effluents, emissions and waste. Significant adverse effects on the quantity and quality of renewable natural resources, including soil, water and air.
- Resettlement of human communities, or significant alteration of the living systems and customs of human groups.
- Location in or close to populations, resources and protected areas, priority sites for conservation, protected wetlands, glaciers, susceptible to being affected, as well as the environmental value of the territory in which it is intended to be located.
- Significant alteration, in terms of magnitude or duration, of the landscape or tourist value of an area. Alteration of monuments, sites with anthropological, archaeological, historical value and, in general, those belonging to cultural heritage.
The EIA must include:
- Extract from the study.
- Project description.
- Baseline of the project that considers the projects that have a favorable Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA), in their area of influence.
- Description of the effects, characteristics or circumstances indicated in article No. 11 of Law No. 19,300 that give rise to the presentation of the EIA.
- Prediction and evaluation of the effects, characteristics or circumstances indicated in the article No. 11 of Law No. 19,300 that gave rise to the presentation of the EIA.
- The measures that allow proving that the EIA takes care of the environmental effects mentioned in article No. 11 of Law No. 19,300.
- Background that proves that the project complies with environmental regulations and with the requirements and contents of sectoral environmental permits (articles of Title VII of the SEIA Regulations).
- Environmental monitoring plan.
- Description of the relationship of the project with regional and communal development policies, plans and programs.
- Negotiation processes with interested parties before the evaluation process, if the owner has carried them out.
The agency will have a period of 120 days to rule on the Environmental Impact Study. In qualified and duly founded cases, the latter may be extended, one time only, for up to 60 additional cases, in accordance with the provisions of article 45 of the SEIA Regulations.
If after the aforementioned deadlines have elapsed, the authority has not ruled on the Environmental Impact Study, it will be deemed to have been rated favorably.
Now, the broken down deadlines are as follows. When entering an EIA, the agency has 5 days to see if the document is admissible or not. Once its admissibility has been verified, the SEA requests the State Administration Bodies with Environmental Competence (OAECA) to evaluate the document and issue reports in approximately 30 days.
If the OAECA defines that the document presents errors, omissions or inaccuracies, the SEA will prepare a Consolidated Report of Clarifications, Rectifications or Extensions (ICSARA), where it will have 30 days to develop it. Then the owner presents an Addendum, where OAECA will have 15 days to review it.
If this has errors, again the SEA will prepare a complementary ICSARA, having a period of 15 days. At the same time, the SEA must request the OAECA to report on the Addendum.
Finally, the SEA prepares and publishes the Consolidated Environmental Assessment Report (ICE), having 15 days to complete it. Then, the OAECA will have 5 days to approve the document and, finally, have a period of 4 days to have the qualification from the Evaluation Commission.
After all these instances, the organization will carry out its Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA). If this is favorable, the project can be developed. If it is unfavorable, another process is started.
Once the EIA is entered into the SEA, Citizen Participation will be carried out. While the agency evaluates our EIA, citizens will be able to make different observations about our study, either by rectifying information, asking for more details, presenting doubts, among others.
Once carried out, we will have a defined period to respond to these citizen observations, providing all the necessary information so that there are no doubts about the development of our project.
Once this process is completed, a Formal Citizen Participation will be carried out, this time requested by the SEA. During this instance, we will again receive observations, which we will respond to again.
Community participation or citizen participation is fundamental within the environmental evaluation, because it allows people to inform themselves and give their opinion responsibly about the project, as well as to obtain a well-founded response to their observations. Citizens provide relevant information to the environmental evaluation and give transparency to the review of EIAs.
The Law on General Environmental Bases No. 19,300, establishes the following within the framework of citizen participation:
- The project owner must publish an extract of the EIA in the Official Gazette and in a newspaper of national or regional circulation.
- Legal entities and natural persons may learn about the EIA, and submit their observations in writing to the SEA, or through the service's website.
- Once the extract is published in the newspaper, citizens have 60 business days to present their observations.
- While the period of citizen participation lasts, the SEA will establish mechanisms that ensure the informed participation of the community in the qualification process of the Environmental Impact Studies.
- The observations presented by the community will be considered (responded to) by the SEA (regional), or Executive Directorate (in the case of an interregional project), on the basis of the Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA), which will be notified to those who have made observations, and they will also be available 5 days before the project is rated on the Service website.
If you need to find more information about this entire process that we are carrying out as a project, we invite you to visit the official SEA website: https://sea.gob.cl/
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