Environment Protection DepartmentThe Operation of Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance in Hong Kong
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Appendix XI

Content > Review of the Operation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Ordinance and Continuous Improvement Measures > Appendix A > Appendix B > Appendix C > Appendix D > Appendix E

Appendix B

Summary statistics of the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance Operation
(1 April 1998 to 31 August 1999)
(Website : http://www.info.gov.hk/epd/eia)

Environmental Pressure Indicator

Type and Scale of Projects Covered by Applications under the EIA Ordinance

Projects with a total estimated cost of over HK$177.2 billion covering

-

Over 38 km of road works and over 70 km of railway; over 308 ha of reclamation/dredging and over 11 km of drainage works and various facility plants; over 12 km power line and 1 power station;

-

Engineering feasibility studies with a total study area of over 433.5 ha.

Process Efficiency
Statutory Steps:

Application under EIA Ordinance

Statutory Time Limit (Days) Average Time Taken (Days) Average Time before EIAO (Days)
EIA Study Brief 45 41.3 60
Permission to Directly Apply for Environmental Permit 45 38.8 60
The Authority's Review of EIA Report 60 51.1 90
Public & ACE Consultation 60 34.6 90
The Authority's reply after consultation 60 16.6 N/A
Environmental Permit 30 26.7 N/A
Variation of Environmental Permit 30 25.0 N/A
Variation of Environmental Permit 30 27.8 N/A
Surrender of Environmental Permit N/A 1.0 N/A
Documents are immediately placed on the EIA Ordinance Public Register for public inspection
Uploading Documents onto the EIA Ordinance Web Site:
Types of Documents Average Time Taken (days) No. of Documents Placed on the Web Site
Project Profile 2.0 58
Environmental Permit (all types of permits) 3.1 48
EIA Study Brief 2.2 34
EIA Report 3.7 14
Executive Summary of EIA Report 3.7 18
Key Output

Applications under EIA Ordinance

  No of Cases received No of cases Processed No. of Cases withdrawn or refused
EIA Study Brief 40 34 briefs issued 1
Permission to Directly Apply for Environmental Permit 21 17 permissions given 2
Approval of EIA Report 27 13 reports approved 3
Environmental Permit (including variations of permits) 56 48 permits issued 2
Surrender of Environmental Permit      1           1           0     
Total 145 113 8
Public Involvement Total
Project profiles exhibited for public comment 58 projects
EIA reports exhibited for public comment 18 projects
Advertisement Notices placed on English and Chinese newspapers notices on newspapers 158
Submission of EIA reports to Advisory Council on the Environment 14 projects
Public comments considered 53 sets of 60 pages in total
Visitor to the EIA Ordinance public register 1,392 persons
Visitor to the EIA Ordinance Web Site

27,838 visitors

Surveillance

Site inspections made to identify issues and/or check compliance 350 site trips
Kilometre of helicopter flight trips made to check compliance 1,174 km

Examples of Key Outcomes

(Information extracted from EIA reports approved under EIA Ordinance or environmental permits issued for designated projects)[The list is not exhaustive.]

Project Designs Meeting the Environmental Performance Requirements in EIA Ordinance Technical Memorandum

projects with a total estimated cost of HK$ 151 billion covering 16 km of roads, 47 km of railways, 216 ha of development projects, 164 ha airport Decommissioning - have gone through the statutory EIA process to meet relevant environmental criteria.

Population Protected

About 570,000 people along and at the vicinity of railway lines, road alignments, reclamation sites, decommissioning site of airport, etc. protected or with impacts minimised.

Problems Avoided or Environmentally Friendly Designs Adopted to Protect the Environment

  • electrified railway system of West Rail (I) to avoid air pollution caused by road traffic equivalent to 2,500 bus trip/day.
  • avoiding adverse impacts to 4 active fishponds of about 2 ha.
  • providing 11km road side noise barriers to protect 85,000 people.
  • adopting buffers ranging from 29 to 67m wide to protect 14ha areas for noise attenuation.
  • using podium structures at residential development to segregate noise sources and receivers to protect 12,000 people.
  • avoiding adverse noise impact by adopting 13.5 km viaduct with 7 km noise barriers and, 8.4 km rock tunnel, 2.3 km surface alignment, 3.0 km cut and cover tunnel, and 3.1 km enclosure structure at grade along West Rail (I).
  • adopting multi-plenum system with restricted maximum train speed of 130 km/hr to reduce noise pollution from West Rail (I) to protect population along the railway line.
  • compensating ecological losses in drainage channel projects by providing:
  • 6.5 ha grasscrete, 3.0 ha marshcrete, 13.5 ha reinstating fish ponds, 12 ha recreated wetland, replanting 1,500 trees along 4 km of river channels.
  • providing 31,000m2 rubble mound seawall to protect the soft and gorgonian corals growth at Lamma during the construction of power plant.
  • shifting from existing coal-fired units to gas-fired units of HEC's Lamma Power Station to improve local air quality.
  • providing silt curtain enclosing the immediate grabbing area to avoid spillage of mudwater to surrounding water.
Others Over 43 Environmental Study Management Group Meetings convened to provide advice to applicants or to resolve issues
Environmental Protection Department, August 1999
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