China Tightens its Environmental Law Control on Environmental Impact of New on Groundwater Environment
Beijing, China,
June 2011
The Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment: Groundwater Environment (the Guidelines), effective on June 1, 2011 introduced by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, has been set out to standardise the environmental impact assessment for groundwater and provide technical support to groundwater protection and pollution prevention and control in China.
The Guidelines provide for the general principle, work procedures, methodology and requirements for a groundwater Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Construction projects, which use groundwater as water supply sources, or may impact groundwater environment, will now by law have to conduct a groundwater EIA and abide by the Guidelines.
A groundwater EIA as required by the Guidelines shall be conducted subject to the construction project type and EIA tier. Construction projects are classified into three types based on the characteristics of their impact on groundwater.
Type I are the projects that might cause groundwater pollution; Type II are the projects that might cause the change of groundwater flow and level and thus lead to hydrogeology problems; and Type III are projects that possess both Type I and Type II characteristics.
The Guidelines provide detail on how to classify a projects’ significance and the corresponding technical requirements.
The Guidelines have filled the gap with the EIA system in China, moving from assessing impact only on surface and visible environment towards below surface and hidden environment as well. This approach has been taken because of the increasingly serious groundwater pollution problem in China, and also because the voluntary groundwater EIA’s performed in the past by various enterprises were not effective enough to prevent groundwater pollution. Therefore, a technical guideline in this regard has been urgently required.
Business operations in China will be impacted by the Guidelines. Businesses that plan for existing facility expansion or new facility construction must perform a groundwater EIA, should the project use groundwater as water supply source or if the project could impact groundwater environment. Therefore, multinational corporations in China should be aware that conducting a groundwater EIA is a precondition for construction projects to be approved by regulators, and take into account the cost and time needed to complete the groundwater EIA in their business plans.
For more information contact lfu@esdchina.com.cn