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KEI

Environmental Impact Assessment

1

Improvement of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Follow-Up for Enhancing Feedback System in South Korea

2

A Study on the Advancement of Environmental Assessment to Evaluate the Adequacy of Waste Treatment Facilities

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Research on Improvement for Water Environment Assessment in Waste Landfill Projects

Vol.10 No.3 September 2022

RESEARCH

BRIEFS

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CONTENTS

Korea Environment Institute

8F~11F, Bldg B, 370 Sicheong-daero, Sejong, 30147, Republic of Korea E-mail: webmaster@kei.re.kr

http://www.kei.re.kr

Ⓒ 2022 KEI

1

Improvement of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Follow-Up for

Enhancing Feedback System in South Korea

3

2

A Study on the Advancement of Environmental Assessment to Evaluate the

Adequacy of Waste Treatment Facilities

14

3

Research on Improvement for Water Environment Assessment in Waste

Landfill Projects

21

KEI RESEARCH BRIEFS Vol.10 No.3

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HIGHLIGHTS

Ex-post monitoring of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is defined as a process where environmental impact of a development project for which EIA has been performed is monitored and

evaluated, based on which environmental management and communication between stakeholders take place.

It is necessary that the institutional foundations be laid in order for the principle of ex-post monitoring to function properly. The concept and principal agents of ex-post monitoring of EIA should be clarified in relevant laws and systems, and a feedback system should be introduced.

To improve the performance of ex-post monitoring, strengthening participant roles, readjusting investigation expenses to a more realistic level, improving the regulation on writing notice, and constructing a monitoring database and releasing the information have been proposed.

Improvement of Environmental

Impact Assessment (EIA) Follow-up for Enhancing Feedback System

in South Korea

WRITING

Kyoung-Ho Kima, Jinhee Leeb, Kyung Yangb, Youngjoon Rheea, Sunmin Leeb, Seulgi Jeongb

a Division for Land Policy Assessment

b Center for Environmental Assessment Monitoring

ARTICLE INFORMATION Keywords

• Environmental Impact Assessment

• Ex-post EIA

• EIA Follow-up

• Feedback

1

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HIGHLIGHTS

To establish a feedback system, this study proposes how to construct indicators for analyzing the entire process of EIA during the ex-post monitoring period and share the results.

CONTACT

Kyoung-Ho Kim, Director, Division for Land Policy Assessment E-mail. khkim@kei.re.kr

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Ⅰ. Background and Aims of Research

Background and necessity of research

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is completed through ex-post EIA in which the actual environmental impact that has occurred during the implementation of a project is monitored and reduction measures are implemented. In Korea, the ex-post EIA process consists of an EIA follow-up and the monitoring of the fulfillment of the consultation content in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, and is compulsory. However, it is currently not playing a great part in decision-making because it is difficult to verify environmental impacts due to insufficient monitoring and reporting, and the auditing of the entire EIA process is insufficient due to a lack of administrative power and budget.

In particular, the ‘feedback’ system that can verify and improve the EIA method, process, and system by analyzing the effect of the EIA process and decision-making according to the ex-post evaluation, and improve the effectiveness and suitability of the environmental impact reduction plan is very insufficient.

Purpose and scope of researchresearch

(Status analysis) Review the current operational status of the ex-post EIA and identify problems and points for improvement

(Institutional improvement) Design a system improvement plan for the integrated operation of the ex-post EIA system and promotion of feedback

(Implementation plan) Establish a feedback system for EIA follow-up for the advancement of the ex-post EIA system and draw up an implementation plan

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Ⅱ. Improving EIA Follow-up

International principles of EIA follow-up 1

Principles of EIA follow-up

Theoretically, environmental impact assessment follow-up is defined as a process of carrying out environmental management and communication between stakeholders in relation to a specific development project or plan. This is accomplished by monitoring and evaluating the environmental impact of the development project or plan (that has conducted an environmental impact assessment).

EIA follow-up consists of four elements: monitoring, evaluation, management, and

communication. Internationally, it is subject to 17 principles regarding the need for follow-up (why), stakeholder roles (who), follow-up goals (what), and follow-up method (how).

In other countries such as the United States and Europe, follow-up is legally defined as

monitoring and supervision over regulatory compliance. In addition, follow-up includes project audit and ex-post evaluation of environmental impact assessment.

EIA follow-up in South Korea 2

Institutional status of EIA follow-up

In Korea, EIA follow-up legally consists of ‘fulfill ment and management of the agreed terms/

conditions’ and ‘ex-post environmental monitoring (investigation)’ as stipulated in the Environmental Impact Assessment Act.

The concept of EIA follow-up is not clear since the ex-post environmental monitoring includes checking whether the agreed terms have been fulfilled. Moreover, it is managed in a dual system with the approval agency and the Ministry of Environment, which makes the procedure complicated and causes role overlap.

Institutional improvement for EIA follow-up

We propose an institutional improvement plan based on the international principles and the current status of our EIA follow-up system. The plan encompasses eight sections in the following categories: the legal system, the ex-post environmental monitoring, and the management of agreed terms/conditions.

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It is necessary to introduce the concept of EIA follow-up into relevant laws and to either divide or unify the roles of the management agencies which are divided into consulting agencies and approval agencies. There is also a need for legal measures to expand public participation, including local residents and non-governmental (civil) groups.

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Ⅲ. Implementation Plan for Ex-post EIA

Status of the ex-post EIA implementation 1

Status of the implementation of EIA follow-up

According to the annual status information provided by the Environmental Impact Assessment

Information Support System (EIASS), the number of EIA follow-up reports has steadily increased since 1998. After 2015, an average of about 1,600 cases per year is being conducted.

EIA follow-up reports are currently reviewed by three organizations: the Korea Environment Institute, the National Institute of Ecology, and the Korea Environment Corporation. Among the project types subject to each institution’s review, plans to extract earth and stone, sand, gravel, minerals, and more (hereafter, ‘quarrying project’) which have a relatively longer duration than other projects in EIA follow-up, were selected as the target project type for analysis of ex-post EIA implementation cases.

Case studies on EIA follow-up of quarrying projects

Typical environmental impacts include degradation of water systems, dust scattering effects, disconnection of ecological axes, noise and vibration effects from blasting, as well as water and soil contamination from heavy metals. Accordingly, typical terms and conditions often include the implementation of dust reduction measures, the installation of sedimentation ponds, the construction of temporary drainage channels, tree transplantation plans, and phased quarrying and restoration.

According to the result of a frequency analysis of the itemized comments on 113 quarrying projects that were subject to EIA follow-up in 2020, more than 90% of all projects received comments on the investigation results and points of the flora and fauna; approximately 80% of the comments were on the fulfillment of the agreed terms and conditions.

The problems relating to the follow-up survey of the environmental impact reports can be summarized as follows: inappropriate survey methods, a lack of reliability in the results of the surveys, insufficient notification of survey results, uncertainty regarding the fulfillment of agreed terms and conditions, and insufficient implementation of additional mitigation measures.

Perception of the professionals about EIA follow-ups

Based on the interview with the representative of the agency conducting EIA follow-ups, the problems and suggestions for improvement in the field management of the ex-post EIA were summarized as follows.

- Practical applicability of comments on EIA follow-up reports

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- Strengthening the role of approval and consulting organizations in on-site inspections - A lack of awareness about environmental issues and a lack of motivation on the part of

business owners to manage the environment

- Providing flexibility in follow-up management based on the characteristics of the business - Securing the reliability of ex-post EIA

- Establishment of the ex-post EIA system

- Increasing the authority and responsibilities of administrators on agreed terms and conditions

A survey related to the effectiveness of the comments on EIA follow-up reports was conducted targeting member companies of the Environmental Impact Assessment Association and the problems of the current ex-post EIA system were outlined as follows.

- Unpractical comments that require further investigation or redesign

- Inappropriateness of comments in terms of timing (e.g. comments that should have been reflected before the construction given after the completion)

- Investigation periods that are difficult to follow in reality (e.g. ban on sampling during rainfalls) - Comments on areas beyond the scope of the project’s impact zone

The stakeholder survey 2

In order to identify the problems of ex-post EIA and to discover improvement points, we constructed a questionnaire by referring to the 17 principles of ex-post EIA.

The questions were about the importance and the current status of ex-post EIA, the roles of stakeholders, ex-post EIA and feedback, andthe problems and points for improvement in ex-post EIA.

Most respondents agreed on the importance of ex-post EIA, but they also recognized that ex- post EIA is not perceived as important.

Review agencies tended to be skeptical of the role and status of the current ex-post EIA, but a consensus was formed on the fact that resources for ex-post EIA are not provided sufficiently.

There is a high level of awareness of the lack of cooperation among stakeholders, and more than half of the respondents had negative responses regarding the operators’ responsibility for fulfilling the agreements.

Many respondents felt that ex-post EIA is helpful in improving the environmental impact assessment of the follow-up development projects, but the review agencies perceived the feedback system negatively based on their job experiences.

Securing resources, including human resources, is more urgent than revising systems or guidelines, and since the perspectives on problems vary depending on the respondent groups, an opportunity to understand each other is necessary.

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Improvement plan for ex-post EIA 3

Problems of ex-post EIA

The current problems in the operation of the ex-post EIA system include unclear roles of

participants in the ex-post EIA management system, the low reliability of monitoring and written reports, and insufficient environmental management at project sites. Also, information on post- environmental management is not well-organized and released sufficiently, and the Ministry of Environment is not placing much importance on follow-up management.

Action plan to improve ex-post EIA

The purpose, role, and scope of ex-post EIA in the Environmental Impact Assessment Act should be defined clearly first, including both EIA follow-up and the management of the consultation content. The details of the relevant sub-regulations should be revised afterward, including strengthening the roles of major participants in the ex-post EIA system (e.g. the approval agency and the person in charge of managing the consultation content), rationalizing agency costs for EIA follow-ups, improving the regulation for writing EIA follow-up reports, and systematically organizing/fully disclosing the information on post-environmental management.

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Ⅳ. Establishment of a Feedback System in Ex-post EIA

Necessity of a feedback system in ex-post EIA

Many researches on environmental impact assessment in Korea have long been focusing heavily on EIA or SEA which includes the enforcement of EIA laws and regulation and technical improvement on quantitative analysis methods. There has been a lack of research on the number and scale of EIA follow-up and ex-post EIA. EIA follow-up in Korea is mainly focused on environmental monitoring and the fulfillment of agreed terms/conditions which act as a tool for filtering illegal procedures and violation of the terms. This resulted in the lack of communication and informational feedback between EIA stakeholders and many issues have been continuously raised from ineffective reduction measures at sites. Thus, ex-post EIA, which is the superordinate concept of EIA follow-up, has not been studied much. In this research, we tried to demonstrate a set of organized feedback system to enhance the utility and effectiveness of ex-post EIA.

※ The term ‘ex-post EIA’ includes EIA follow-up and EIA monitoring.

Establishment of a feedback system using Environmental Indicator Framework (EIF)

In this research, we have set out a series of improved methods for applying ‘Environmental Indicator Framework’ to the current ex-post EIA system in Korea. The objective is to enhance the communication between EIA stakeholders and to improve the current EIA system in Korea.

Main criteria for ‘indicator category’, ‘primary objective’, and ‘indicator’ have been collected from various studies and guidelines. After a thorough study, it was found that EIA follow-up had a large number of structural components similar to those of EIF. As a result, we have demonstrated a new EIF model suitable to Korea’s EIA procedures.

Application of the ex-post EIA feedback system

According to the ex-post EIA system in Korea, comprehensive evaluation result must be described in EIA follow-up reports. However, there is no clear guideline for writing this section and it has been used only for presenting the monitoring result. We have noticed that this section must include the ‘Effect’, ‘Status changes’, and ‘Ex-post evaluation of the result’ which are the main components of environmental indicator framework (EIF). Thus, we have modified several EIF models used in many other countries and organizations to make them suitable to current EIA system in Korea. We have demonstrated several comprehensive evaluation exercises on waste treatment facility construction operation, rock mining operations, and industrial complex development operations. As these exercises utilizes the results from monitoring procedures and evaluation of the effectiveness of the reduction measures implemented in the EIA process, the results should resolve many issues in Ex-post EIA and enhance Ex-post EIA feedback.

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Ⅴ. Conclusion and Suggestions

Future direction for ex-post EIA

An institutional basis should be established so that the concept of core principles and values of ex-post EIA can be applied in the field. To this end, it is necessary to establish a cooperative system among stakeholders and learn about exemplary implementation, and it should be accompanied by on-site environmental management and continuous system improvement through experience.

System improvement plan for ex-post EIA

Introduction of the ex-post EIA concept in the legal system, clarification of the roles of consulting agencies and approval agencies, expansion of public participation, introduction of the concept of the feedback system (ex-post evaluation), revision of the regulations on the report form, establishment of provisions clearly stating environmental damage prevention measures in laws and enforcement regulations, and establishing a clear connection between the EIA follow-up and the management of consultation content are required.

Improvement plan for follow-up management

It is necessary to strengthen the roles of major participants in ex-post EIA, such as the approval agency and the person in charge of managing the content of consultation, to rationalize agency costs, to improve the regulations on the report form, and to systematically organize and fully disclose ex-post EIA data. Also, it is required that the Ministry of Environment, the main body in charge of system management and monitoring, give more weight to follow-up management by raising awareness, increasing human resources, and fostering expertise.

Establishment of a feedback system and implementation plan

We propose to add a checklist to the ‘comprehensive evaluation’ item in the EIA follow-up report so that quantitative analysis can be carried out according to the characteristics of each project. The analysis of the accumulated data would be released in white papers. It is possible to promote further development of EIA and ex-post EIA by accumulating and sharing the experiences gained in the management of EIA follow-up and agreed terms/conditions.

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Key References

Domestic Literature

Choi, H. et al. (2013), Building Statistics and Improving Post Environmental Impact Assessment System, Korea Environment Institute.

Choi, J. G. and J. H. Park (2015), Practical Strategies for the Improvement of Environmental Impact Assessment Follow-up, Korea Environment Institute, p.65.

Kim, K. et al. (2021), Improvement of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Follow-Up for Enhancing Feedback System in South Korea, Korea Environment Institute.

International Literature

Arts, J., P. Caldwell, and A. Morrison-Saunders (2001), “EIA Follow-up: Good Practice and Future Directions: Findings from a Workshop at the IAIA 2000 Conference”, Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 19, pp.175–185.

IAIA (1999), Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment Best Practice, Institute of Environmental Assessment, UK, www.iaia.org/publications.htm.

Online Source

Korean Law Information Center, “Environmental Impact Assessment Act”, http://www.law.go.kr/

법령/환경영향평가법, Search Date: September 1, 2020.

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HIGHLIGHTS

This study is a two-year project that aims to develop and advance the adequacy evaluation method for waste treatment facilities with the goal of improving Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in the sector of “eco-friendly resource circulation.”

The first-year study set the standards and basis for adequacy evaluation of the waste treatment facilities in 17 upper-level municipalities and 226 basic municipalities.

Also, using the standards and basis as unit information, we created conditional equations and established a decision-making model and judgment process based on the combination of those equations.

Moreover, in order to automate the assessment, we developed a program for the judgment process and established a “data digitization platform for adequacy assessment of waste treatment facilities” based on QGIS.

A Study on the Advancement of Environmental Assessment to Evaluate the Adequacy of Waste Treatment Facilities

WRITING

Junyeong Ana, Min-Kyu Jib, Jaejin Ryuc

a Division for Public Infrastructure Assessment b Division for Land Policy Assessment

c Center for Environmental Assessment Monitoring

ARTICLE INFORMATION Keywords

• Environmental Impact Assessment

• Eco-friendly Resource Circulation

• Adequacy of Waste Treatment Facilities

• Status of Waste Generation and Treatment

2

CONTACT

Junyeong An, Senior Research Fellow, Division for Public Infrastructure Assessment

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Ⅰ. Background and Aims of Research

In South Korea, most household waste is processed in public landfill sites or incinerators, and the plans for their construction, operation, management, and more are established by local governments. Most of other wastes such as industrial waste and construction waste are treated in the private sector in accordance with the market economy principle, occupying more than 70%

of the total waste generated, thus making the role of the private sector in waste treatment very important in South Korea. In general, as most private enterprises select an economically efficient site or location for the construction of their waste treatment facilities, the private landfill sites or incinerators have been unevenly distributed centering around some regions. Thus, environmental impacts in those regions are aggravated by air-pollutants and odor.

Moreover, local governments are not responsible for the management of other wastes except household waste, which could accelerate the uneven distribution of the private waste treatment facilities in municipalities. Currently, private waste treatment facilities in South Korea are on their last legs, and it is viewed that EIA projects for the construction of new waste treatment facilities will be proposed.

However, if construction sites for new waste treatment facilities are selected without considering regional balance in waste generation and treatment, not only it could be confronted by strong opposition of the local population but also environment impacts in the site region might be

aggravated by air-pollutants and odor. Hence, in site selection of new waste treatment facilities, the regional capacity of waste treatment facilities and the balance among 226 basic local governments and 17 upper-level municipalities in terms of waste generation and treatment should be taken into consideration.

To date, there have been no methods for readily identifying the waste treatment capacity and balance of the local governments. Hence, we developed a ‘data digitization platform,’ which utilizes

‘spacial information on waste transport by time/distance,’ to visualize the analyzed information on the waste treatment capacity and balance of the 226 basic local governments and 17 upper-level municipalities.

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Ⅱ. Methodology

South Korea consists of 17 upper-level municipalities and 226 basic local governments (Si/Gun/

Gu), and there are many landfills and incineration facilities. In this study, we analyzed national statistics, the National Waste Generation and Treatment Status, from which unit data information on the waste generation and treatment of 226 local governments were extracted. The unit information was used to develop a decision-making model and judgment process for analyzing the adequacy of waste treatment facilities for the local governments. Input data for the model was collected from the data used for the extraction of unit information. Then, we developed a program for the decision-making model and judgment process and a platform to automatically analyze the waste treatment capacity of the upper-level municipalities and basic local governments, named

‘data digitization platform,’ based on QGIS. In addition, a study on the visualization of information on waste transport to treatment facilitates by time/distance was performed using ArcGIS for the unification with the data digitization platform.

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Ⅲ. Results and Discussions

Waste treatment capacity of 226 local governments was compared using the results analyzed by the data digitization platform (refer to Appendix I, II, III, IV). According to the results, the capacity of the public landfills managed by the local governments was sufficient, but the capacity of the incinerators was found to be insufficient in general. Most of the local governments have incinerators which are old and thus need to construct new ones or have them replaced. The current capacity of industrial waste landfills nationwide will last for about five years, which means that EIA projects for the construction of new public incinerators as well as private landfills will increase in the near future.

Other study results that utilized spacial information on waste transport to treatment facilities by time/distance showed potential site regions that are necessary for balancing the distribution of waste treatment facilities among the local governments. For example, according to the analysis of the data digitization platform for adequacy assessment of waste treatment facilities, South Gyeongsang Province was found to take their industrial waste out of the province to other regions for incineration; that is, the generated amount of industrial waste that should be incinerated is greater than the region’s capacity. Applying the spatial data based on the treatment plant locations and the transport distances developed in this study, incinerators for industrial waste in South Gyeongsang Province are located near Changwon City, meaning lower accessibility compared to North & South Jeolla Provinces and the southern part of North Gyeongsang. Therefore, plans to incinerate waste in those regions instead can be established. Also, using the analysis result of the aforementioned data platform, it is possible to conduct a comparative analysis of industrial waste treatment capacities among North & South Jeolla Provinces and the southern part of South Gyeongsang Province, and thus, areas with more room can be selected when planning the treatment. Through this, transport distances from the generation point of waste to the halfway point (or the final point) and courses of treatment can be minimized, and it is possible to achieve a balance among regions in terms of waste load for treatment. This way, the comprehensive digitization platform which combines the data digitization platform for adequacy assessment of waste treatment facilities and spatial information based on plant locations and transport distances can support the decision-making process to reduce or prevent the increase in waste load for treatment in other regions caused by the imbalance in treatment capacity.

We designed this study, and the planners of private or public waste treatment facilities, waste treatment facility approval agencies, consulting organizations, environmental impact assessors, and more considered the regional balance of waste treatment facilities in the waste treatment facility planning stage to determine the location of waste treatment facilities. In order to support feasibility

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analysis, a basic study was conducted for the integration of the data digitization platform for waste treatment facility adequacy evaluation and information on waste treatment facility location-based transport by time/distance using spatial information (ArcGIS).

In this study, we attempted to develop an analysis technique that can compare the waste treatment capacity of 226 local governments and to readily identify which region needs waste treatment facilities in terms of regional balance of waste generation and treatment. Finally, it was confirmed that using the data digitization platform developed through this study, EIA stakeholders such as proponents, government officials, and so on are able to intuitively make a balanced planning of site regions when constructing new waste treatment plants.

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Ⅳ. Policy Suggestions

Improvement of regulations for environmental impact assessment 1

Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEA) is performed only for public waste treatment plants which have site selection committee. In contrary, private waste treatment plant projects are subject to only environmental impact assessment (EIA) or small-scale environmental impact assessment (SEIA). Therefore, private waste treatment plant projects are focused on assessing short-term environmental impacts rather than strategic assessment such as considering the regional balance of waste treatment facilities among the local governments. Therefore, it is necessary to revise the regulations on the preparation of environmental impact assessment to to make strategic assessment of waste treatment facilities mandatory in the stage of EIA and SEIA.

Measures to improve the effectiveness of national statistical data 2

The accuracy and effectiveness of the decision-making model and judgment process for the adequacy of waste treatment facilities constructed through this study are dependent on the accuracy of the source data, National Waste Generation and Treatment Status. A considerable number of nonavailable values can be confirmed from the analysis results of the data information platform presented in the appendix of this research report. It was confirmed that this was

caused by the omission of some data in the source data, or errors in data entry. Nevertheless, the decision-making model and judgment process were built using this data because the above- mentioned issues were recognized as improvements rather than problems. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the data digitization platform, it is necessary to identify the causes of the omission and errors in data and find solutions.

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Key References

Domestic Literature

An, J., M. Ji, and J. Ryu (2021), A Study on the Advancement of Environmental Assessment to Evaluate the Adequacy of Waste Treatment Facilities, Korea Environment Institute.

Ministry of Environment (2012), Guide to Installing and Operating Domestic Waste Incineration Facilities, pp.83-84.

Ministry of Environment (2018), Study on the Calculation of the Coefficient for Residue Occurrence by Waste Type and Recycling Method (), p.2.

Ministry of Environment (2019), National Status of Waste Generation and Treatment.

Online Sources

Korean Law Information Center, “Enforcement Rules on Decision, Structure, and Installation Standards of City & County Planning Facilities”, http://www.law.go.kr/법령/도시·군계획시설의 결정·구조 및 설치기준에 관한 규칙, Search Date: May 3, 2021.

Korean Law Information Center, “Enforcement Rules of the Wastes Control Act”, https://www.law.

go.kr/법령/폐기물관리법시행규칙, Search Date: May 3, 2021.

Korean Law Information Center, “Environmental Impact Assessment ACt”, http://www.law.go.kr/

법령/환경영향평가법, Search Date: May 3, 2021.

Korean Law Information Center, “Regulations on Preparation, etc. of Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (Ministry of Environment Public Notice No.2020-289)”, http://www.law.go.kr/

행정규칙/환경영향평가서등 작성 등에 관한 규정, Search Date: May 3, 2021.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Although the technology in the installation and management of waste landfill facilities and relevant legal systems have constantly improved, water environment problems are still arising due to the leakage of leachate and its insufficient treatment.

This study aimed to investigate/examine the causes of water pollution cases based on the notification of results of follow-up survey of environmental impact and on-site joint investigation of the landfill construction projects carried out under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system, and draw up proper improvement measures (from the EIA and political perspectives).

Improvement plan 1: A draft amendment to the manual for writing and reviewing EIA reports and a draft site selection guide were drawn up based on the case analysis results and improvement measures in order to ensure effective EIA in the field of water environment.

Research on Improvement for Water Environment Assessment in Waste Landfill Projects

WRITING

Min-Kyu Jia, Junyeong Anb, Jinhee Leec, Young-Joon Joob, Byungkwon Leed, Kyoung-Ho Kima, Wonseok Jang

a Division for Land Policy Assessment

b Division for Public Infrastructure Assessment c Center for Environmental Assessment Monitoring d Planning and Coordination Team

ARTICLE INFORMATION Keywords

• Waste Landfill

• Leachate

• Environmental Impact Assessment Method Improvement Proposal

• Landfill Management Measure

3

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HIGHLIGHTS

Improvement plan 2: Improvements to the legal systems were proposed for site selection, methods of landfilling, leachate

treatment (e.g. water level, standard items, and reuse) with the aim of minimizing the impact of water pollution caused by leachate from landfills.

This study comprehensively investigated the opinions of varied stakeholders including landfill specialists (design, supervision, construction), experts from EIA agencies and public institutions for landfill management, and persons in charge of landfill operation and management.

CONTACT

Min-Kyu Ji, Senior Research Fellow, Division for Land Policy Assessment

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Ⅰ. Research Purpose and Objective

Water pollution caused by leachate generated from waste landfills continues to occur, for which proactive investigation and response measures are required. Currently, an environmental impact assessment system is in operation to predict and assess the environmental impact of waste landfill projects in advance in order to avoid or minimize the impact. However, the effectiveness of the environmental impact assessment for leachate management from landfill sites must be attentively diagnosed, considering the frequent identification of water pollution cases in post-environmental impact assessment outcomes. In addition, the designation of the site, and installation and

management of the facilities of waste landfills are subject to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, the Wastes Control Act, and the Installation of Waste Disposal Facilities and Assistance

promoted to Adjacent Areas Act. Therefore, the water environmental impact assessment criteria for environmental impact assessment must in line with the current waste management act and regulations to develop a reasonable improvement method.

The main objective of this study was to investigate and analyze water pollution cases caused by the operation of waste landfill projects to comprehensively identify the causes of pollution and describe the improvements points. Ultimately, this study aims to establish measures to improve the environmental impact assessment of waste landfill projects, in conjunction with the causes of water environmental issues, to contribute to the development of appropriate plans and management measures for construction and operation.

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Ⅱ. Current State of Waste Landfill Facility Management and Characteristics of Leachate Generation

This section presents the results of the investigation of the factors subject to facility management and the outcomes of operating public waste landfill facilities, to identify the general management and operation statuses of the South Korean waste landfill facilities. In addition, the changes in water quality and state depending on the type of landfill, age of landfill, etc., were studied, and the application methods for efficient leachate treatment were examined to identify the characteristics of leachate, which is the main cause of water environmental issues originating from landfills, and to minimize the environmental impact of polluted sources.

The factors subject to landfill management for reducing the impact on the water environment included water quality investigation standards, leachate level management standards, soil covering standards, etc. Furthermore, the compaction efficiency of landfill facilities, leachate reduction rate, and current state of structural stability of landfill facilities were found to be relevant. In the actual operation conditions survey, many facilities in public waste landfills were found to be insufficiently managing the corresponding indicators, for which improvements are necessary. The management factors are covered in detail in the third section “Analysis of the Cause of Water Pollution and Countermeasures” and the fourth section “Improvement Proposal for the Assessment Method in Environmental Impact Assessment” of this paper.

Since water quality properties and biodegradability of the pollution source based on the quality and state of leachate vary depending on the type of landfill waste and the age of landfill, it is necessary to establish an appropriate plan during environmental impact assessment for developing and efficiently operating a suitable leachate treatment facility. This study aimed to identify the estimated water quality and state based on the type of waste brought in and the landfill phase to design a suitable treatment technique and establish an operations management method of the process for each phase.

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Ⅲ. Analysis of the Cause of Water Pollution and Countermeasures

Extensive research on water pollution cases originating from landfills is crucial for acquiring baseline data for comprehensively analyzing the cause and developing its improvement

measures. A wide range of data was investigated and analyzed, including press releases by the media and relevant authorities, academic materials, technical diagnosis reports, and public data.

Expert seminars, joint field surveys (environmental impact assessment target projects), interviews with relevant authorities, and stakeholder surveys were conducted to identify the cause of the issue and draw improvement points.

Despite the terms of obedience presented for each phase, including the standards for installation, management, and post-management for waste landfill facilities, in the Wastes Control Act and others, the water environment has been confirmed to be impacted by insufficient facility planning and installation, and lack of operations management technologies. Research showed that the water environmental impact originating from leachates stemmed from installation to operation and management periods of facilities for cutting off water flow, treating leachates, leachate management water level, dumping, and soil covering. The improvement methods proposed for the relevant causes were focused on the technical aspects, such as landfill design, construction, and operations management.

The landfill stakeholders (e.g., design, supervision and construction, facility operations management, and environmental impact assessment agencies) survey was divided into the landfill site, planning (design), construction, operations management, and environmental impact assessment before proceeding. Consequently, the responses revealed that the 1) ground

properties at the time of landfill site selection, 2) water insulation techniques during design, 3) waterproof membrane damage prevention during construction, 4) natural disaster and leachate treatment processes during landfill operation, and 5) establishment exclusion criteria for other emplacements were closely related to the causes of leachate-derived water environmental impacts.

The data from the survey above was considered to be useful as baseline data for improving the assessment methods in environmental impact assessments, and the major contents from the factors drawn from above were correlated and specified under section four's improvement proposal for the assessment method in the environmental impact assessment part.

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Figure 1. Procedure for preparing restorative measures for water pollution originating from landfills

Source: Prepared by the authors.

Press release from media and relevant authorities

Academic dissertation and report

Landfill technical diagnosis reports

Public data (EIASS data, etc.)

Literature and report analysis

Multidisciplinary expert survey

Expert seminar

Landfill joint field investigation

Technical improvement measures (design, construction, and operations management fields)

Other regulatory improvement measures Water pollution case study

Root cause analysis

Improvement measures preparation

Association with environmental impact assessment

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Ⅳ. Environmental Impact Assessment Amendment Proposal

Standardization measures are necessary for the preparation of environmental impact assessment and for the reflection of the improvement proposal associated with the causes of water

environmental issues to carry out effective environmental impact assessments of waste landfill projects. In this study, the current content of the assessment report and the research results from section three were shared with environmental impact assessment experts to collect their views regarding the problems of the overall assessment and the possible improvements. The results of the survey were organized for the expert forum. The contents drawn as the final improvements for the environmental impact assessment by the forum were reflected in the environmental impact assessment manual and locational guideline (draft) after the analysis of the current method of preparation of the environmental impact assessment report and verification of its applicability.

The supplements to the environmental impact assessment report preparation and review manual corresponded to the examination of the comparison of alternatives, calculation of the generated leachate, leachate water insulation facility, installation plan of the flow control reservoir, treatment plan for the leachate, management of water level of the leachate, waste landfill method (including sludges), cover material supply and management plan, post-

environmental impact assessment, etc., which correspond to the main contents applicable to the entire environmental impact assessment project including strategic environmental assessment.

Most of their subjects were proposed as substantially supplemented and amended contents, based on the factors included in the existing environmental impact assessment reports and the causes of water environmental problems due to leachate uncovered from this study.

The manual will supplement the waste treatment facility section of the manual for preparation and review of environmental impact assessment report (by assessment criteria and by project), and the locational guideline (plan) will be reflected in Chapter 15, “Waste, Manure, and

Livestock Manure Treatment Facility Installation,” within the strategic environmental impact assessment manual (basic development plan). A problem resulting from a landfill project has a relatively significant environmental impact compared to other development projects. Thus, the development of a separate guideline and manual along with in-depth research for the assessment criteria of landfill projects is proposed for the future because these projects have high regional and social sensitivities.

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Figure 2. Preparation of locational guideline and manual amendment (plan)

Source: Prepared by the authors.

Assessment report preparation and review manual amendment (plan)

Future plan

Current state of assessment report preparation and improvement (plan) reflection

Manual amendment (water environment, topographic, and geological, etc) correction

Content of criteria such as atmospheric quality, odor, population settlement, etc., supplementation

Exclusive waste landfill project manual development (e.g., urban development projedt and tourism complex)

Locational guideline (plan) Existing domestic guideline (plan) investigation

Strategic environmental impact assessment manual reflection

Integrated locational assessment guideline (plan) preparation Domestic and foreign relevant data investigation and analysis

Guideline (plan) considering domestic applicability (water environment, topographic, and geological criteria) derivation

Water environment, topographic, and geological criteria indicator standards quantification

Assessment system development linked with review criteria of other fields

Future plan

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Ⅴ. Policy Improvement Measures for Waste Landfill Facilities

While deriving improvements for the environmental impact assessment, those associated with the policy were proposed as legal amendments (draft) regarding waste landfill management. The waste landfill method, leachate water level management, well groundwater pollution monitoring standard, and permissible leachate emission standard corresponded to the parts relevant to management. The leachate reuse method and post-environmental impact assessment period during environmental impact assessment were also included as other criteria. The legislation related to the amendment (draft) were the Wastes Control Act, Act on Promotion and support of Water Reuse, and Environmental Impact Assessment Act, as presented in Table 1.

The amendment (draft) to the legislation was made after collecting opinions from experts in the design and supervision of domestic waste landfills, experts from environmental impact assessment agencies, and experts from public institutions (Korea Environment Corporation). It is considered that supplementary research for each issue, precise investigation and analysis of the necessity, and collection of opinions from diverse stakeholders must be entailed for the proposed amendment to be reflected in the future.

Table 3. Legislative amendment (draft)

Classification Content

Enforcement of the Rule of the Wastes

Control Act

(Attached) Table 5. Specific Standards and Methods for Waste

Disposal • Sludge waste landfill method, etc.

(Attached) Table 11. Management Standards for Waste Disposal Facilities or Recycling Facilities

• Leachate management water level

• Monitoring well groundwater pollution standards

• Permissible Leachate emission standard Act on Promotion

and Support of Water Reuse

Article 9 (Installation and Management of Gray Water

Systems)

• Water quality standards for leachate treatment water reuse

Enforcement Decree of the Environmental Impact Assessment

Act

(Attached) Table 1. Post- Environmental Impact Assessment Target Project and

Period

• Period of post-environmental impact assessment

Rules for the Determination,

Structure, and Installation Standards

of Urban and District Planning Facilities

Article 157 (Criteria for Determination of Waste Treatment

and Recycling Facilities) • Landfill facility location

Source: Edited by the authors.

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Besides the legislation amendments (draft), other proposed policy improvement measures for waste landfill facilities included expanding the scope of government support for strengthening facility installation standards, encouraging recent landfill operation technology systems (leachate recirculation bioreactor), strengthening the standards for the scope of landfill management supervision and training professionals, executing efficient landfill inspection plans, and expanding waste landfill management scopes for relevant institutions.

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Ⅵ. Conclusion and Recommendations

This study was conducted to develop improvement measures for environmental impact

assessment of water environments in waste landfill projects. The evaluation criteria relevant to impact on water quality, mainly involving leachate, during the construction and operation of landfill facilities were water environment (water quality, hydrogeology, and groundwater), topographic and geological, and environment-friendly resource cycle, in which the insufficient factors during environmental impact assessment were supplemented and improved through this research.

The essential points from the research results, as extensive content, including the evaluation of comparison of alternatives, impact forecast, reduction measures, and post-environmental impact assessment, were reflected in the environmental impact assessment report preparation, the review manual, and the locational guideline (plan). The points that required legislative amendment were proposed as policy improvements. This research was meaningful since not only extensive data were studied but also opinions from numerous stakeholders including landfill design, supervision, and construction experts, environmental impact assessment agency experts, landfill management public institution experts, and landfill operations management practitioners were comprehensively collected to derive realistic and highly-effective outcomes. Meanwhile, minimizing the water environmental impact originating from landfill leachate only through supplementations and amendments (draft) to the relevant legislation and guidelines is limiting.

Therefore, proactive technical support from relevant authorities (including private facilities) and systematic operations management and supervision execution from local governments (including operator entities) are required.

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Key References

Domestic Literature

Ji, M. et al. (2021), Research on Improvement for Water Environment Assessment in Waste Landfill Projects, Korea Environment Institute.

Landfill O&M Division, Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corporation (2021), Landfill Operation and Management Techniques.

Ministry of Environment and Korea Environment Corporation (2019), Evaluation Report of the Waste Treatment Projects and the Installation and Operation of Waste Treatment Plants in 2018.

International Literature

Rezaeisabzevar, Y., A. Bazargan, and B. Bazargan (2020), “Landfill Site Selection Using Multi Criteria Decision Making: Influential Factors for Comparing Locations”, Journal of Environmental Sciences, Vol. 93, Elsevier, pp.170-184.

Sener, B., M. L. Süzen, and V. Doyuran (2006), “Landfill Site Selection by Using Geographic Information Systems”, Environmental Earth Sciences, 49(3), Springer, pp.383-384.

Teng et al. (2021), “Characterization and Treatment of Landfill Leachate: A review”, Water Research, Vol. 203, Elsevier, pp.1-10.

Online Source

KONETIC, “Trends in Landfill Technology and Development Plans”, https://www.konetic.or.kr/main/

REPORT/REPORT_VIEW.asp?PARENT_NUM=190, Search Date: October 1, 2021.

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