Environmental Impact Assessment

Origins

EIA was first introduced in the United States in the late 1960s and is now practiced in more than 100 countries. The environmental movement of the 1960s played a key role in the birth of EIA. The post–World War II era in North America was marked by an unprecedented period of economic growth and also a period of rapid environmental change and increased public awareness of the widespread negative effects of development on forests, wetlands, and water and air pollution. Inspired by pioneering works such as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which described [Page 935]the adverse effects of pesticide use on the environment, the environmental movement led to increasing pressures on central governments to take actions to address the negative environmental changes that were occurring. The response was the passage of several laws, each addressing a particular environmental concern, such as the Clean Air Act, designed to establish pollution limits and to regulate industrial emissions.

It was not until 1969, when the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was introduced, that a framework was provided for the simultaneous consideration of the full range of environmental considerations associated with a proposed development activity. The term environmental impact assessment was coined to refer to this framework and the process that it generated. NEPA, which became law in 1970, was not designed to replace other laws and environmental programs but to complement them by providing the means to integrate environmental and public concerns about often controversial development proposals and to organize and present these concerns in a way that was meaningful to decision making. For the first time, those proposing to undertake certain development projects had to demonstrate that the projects would not adversely affect the environment and to document this in the form of an environmental impact statement (EIS)—an often lengthy and highly technical document that describes the proposed development or undertaking and reports on its potential environmental and socioeconomic effects and prescribed management measures. During the first decade of NEPA, approximately 1,000 EISs were prepared annually in the United States. This number has greatly increased since then.

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