Maria Teresa Gómez Osorio Supervisors: Dr. R. Cobb and Dr. A. Bond Role of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in decision- making process for Hazardous Waste Management Facilities (HWMF) in Mexico

Outline: Introduction Perspectives used First findings Conclusion

Introduction HWMF are needed in Mexico Decision-making process for HWMF Planning and design Developer and Consultant Environmental permit Ministry of Environment (Federal level) EIS Environmental Permit Building permit Local authorities 10% of hazardous wastes properly managed in Mexico

Introduction EIA is an important part of the decision-making process. EIA’s effectiveness has been questioned based on the Rational perspective. Objective: Investigate the role of EIA in decision-making process Case study: decision-making process for HWMF in Mexico Environmental permit More research is needed regarding the role of EIA Rational Pluralist politics Political economy Symbolic politics Organisational Institutional (Bartlett and Kurian, 1999)

Role of EIA Rational perspective Indicator : 1. Evaluation of EIA system 2. Adequacy of operational performance 3. Quality of EIS Technique -Generating - Organising -Communicating Pluralist politics perspective - Inclusive - Participatory - Empower stakeholders - Make decisions transparent Indicator : 4. Stakeholder participation practice Rational Pluralist politics Political economy Symbolic politics OrganisationalInstitutional

Rational perspective : 1. EIA system and 2. Adequacy of operational performance (Sadler,1996; Wood, 2003) Excellent - Good - – Poor – Very poor (Sadler, 1996) Satisfactory Strengths: Legal basis Screening Decision making Report review Auditing of mitigation measures Weaknesses:  Consideration of alternatives  Monitoring and auditing of impacts  Consultation and participation

Excellent - Good - – Unsatisfactory (Lee et al., 1999) 3. Quality of EIS (Lee et al., 1999) 3 EIS Landfill for containment (2002 – 2005) Improvement is needed:  Description of development, local environment and baseline conditions  Identification and evaluation of key impacts  Alternatives and mitigation measures Satisfactory Rational perspective:

Pluralist politics perspective: 4. Stakeholder participation practice (Bond et al., 2004; Hartley and Wood, 2005 ) 3 Landfill for containment (2002 – 2005) Unfulfilled:  Early  Empower stakeholders Partially fulfilled:  Access of information  Provision of information  Two-way communication  Inclusive  Transparent Nearly fulfilled: Completely fulfilled:

Conclusions Role of EIA in decision-making process for HWMF and therefore its effectiveness: Just ‘Satisfactory’ from the Rational perspective and significant improvements are needed. From the Pluralist perspective, the effectiveness is ‘Unsatisfactory’, many improvements are needed. Other perspectives will still be analysed