The selection of a suitable location is a
decisive requirement for the safe operation of a repository mine and for the
long-term safe containment of the waste after its decommissioning.
Essential criteria are the barrier
properties of the rock, the hydrogeological conditions and the prognosis of
future site developments.
The Preliminary
Site Investigation is developed with available bibliographic
information that replaces the EIA in those cases in which the activities do not
involve intensive or extensive use of the land, such as aerial photography,
surface geology, or in the case of low impact activities to develop in
non-fragile ecosystems.
These preliminary studies are prepared by
the person in charge to evaluate them with the environmental protection criteria,
and which will serve as a basis for making decisions regarding the scope of the
subsequent more detailed environmental analysis
In practice, this initial preliminary phase
is part of the comprehensive environmental assessment plan of the project under
study.
Partial studies are also developed that are
based on analyzes to be carried out on those projects (both works projects and
activity projects) that imply environmental impacts in their execution that
would partially affect the environment.
Said partial environmental effects originated can be resolved (elimination or minimization) by adopting a series of simple and easily applied corrective measures, which will be collected in this partial study, and which is also part of the comprehensive environmental assessment plan of the project under study.
The preliminary investigation with a
specifications is the first result in the framework of the EIA report. The
survey should explain what presumably the most important questions to be
answered in the EIA.
As part of the Detailed
Site Investigation, the applicant discloses the environmental sectors
which, in view of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), require additional
investigations and/or assessments.
This makes it possible to prevent the EIA from
neglecting environmental sectors significantly affected by the construction
project and not placing in the foreground sectors affected by the project only
slightly.
As a rule, preliminary investigations do
not definitively establish all the environmental repercussions inherent in the
construction project. For this reason, the applicant must submit a
specification for the EIA to the environmental protection service.
In this case, the result of the preliminary
investigation essentially corresponds to the guidelines established for the
elaboration of the EIA.
However, if in the preliminary
investigations the environmental repercussions of the project and the
environmental protection measures can already be established and definitively
illustrated, the results of the preliminary investigation count as EIA.
In the case of smaller projects, less
problematic, we can limit ourselves to drawing up a preliminary investigation
report.
Likewise, it is necessary to carry out a
socio-environmental study of the environment, which is nothing more than a
previous environmental diagnosis carried out on a specific geographical area
that will allow identifying the environmental conditions present in that
environment prior to the completion of the project.
This preliminary diagnosis includes all the socio-cultural, biotic and abiotic aspects of the ecosystem of the area involved. In short, it is about defining, identifying and characterizing in detail the biotic and abiotic component of that ecosystem, that is, the environment.
