Camilty Wind Farm - Partnerships for Renewables

Camilty Wind Farm
2 The Environmental Impact Assessment and Scoping
Process
2.1 Overview
Background
2.1.1 EIA is a systematic process that must be followed for certain categories of project before they
can receive development consent. EIA aims to identify the significant environmental effects
of a project. This helps to ensure that the importance of the predicted effects and the
measures proposed to address them are properly understood by the public, and the local
authority before it makes a decision.
2.1.2 Information describing the development and its environmental effects are presented in an ES.
The EIA process that culminates in the completion of the ES has a number of key
characteristics. It should be:
• Systematic, comprising a sequence of tasks defined both by regulation and by
practice;
• Analytical, requiring the application of specialist skills from the environmental
sciences;
• Impartial, its objective being to inform decision-making rather than to promote the
project;
• Consultative, with provision being made for obtaining information and feedback from
interested parties including local authorities, members of the public and statutory and
non statutory agencies; and
• Iterative, allowing opportunities for environmental concerns to be addressed during
the planning and design of a project.
2.1.3 Typically, a number of design iterations take place in response to environmental constraints
identified during the EIA process (i.e. incorporating mitigation measures to avoid, reduce,
offset or compensate for identified adverse effects or conversely creating opportunities for
positive effects or enhancements). The design evolution process that has been followed in
order to take account of environmental constraints and build-in appropriate mitigation to the
proposed wind farm is described fully in Chapter 3: Design Evolution. Further topic-specific
mitigation measures are presented in the corresponding topic chapters and summarised in
Chapter 16: Summary of Effects and Mitigation.
EIA Regulations
2.1.4 Schedule 1 of the EIA Regulations 1 lists those developments for which an EIA is mandatory.
Schedule 2 of the EIA Regulations lists developments for which the need for an EIA is
determined on a case-by-case basis (i.e. if significant environmental effects are likely), whilst
Schedule 3 describes indicative thresholds to be used to determine if a Schedule 2
development is an “EIA development”. Where an EIA is required, environmental information
1 The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2011.
March 2013 2-1 ES Chapter 2
The EIA and Scoping Process
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