Southern Sources Integration Assets Project
Water Corporation
360 Environmental has worked directly with the Water Corporation to provide environmental management services and undertake a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the Southern Sources Integration Assets (SSIA) project. The SSIA is a large-scale civil engineering project comprising approximately 100 km of corridors in the south eastern suburbs of Perth. It is planned to accommodate future water infrastructure requirements over the next several decades. The corridors will accommodate the installation of pipelines, booster pump stations and reservoirs.
Strategic Environmental Assessment
An SEA is a formal environmental impact assessment process governed by the Environmental Protection Authority in accordance with Part IV of the Environmental Protection Act 1986. The SEA is better suited to proposals that will be implemented over a longer timeframe, and may be implemented in multiple stages than the more common Public Environmental Review (PER). For example, the SSIA is a proposal with multiple components including pump stations and pipelines that will be constructed and installed in stages over several decades. The goal of an SEA is to have the Minister of Environment provide advice on the environmental acceptability of the proposal in its entirety and to grant approval to proceed with the detailed assessment of construction and operational impacts of each staged component (e.g. of a particular pipeline route). One of the major advantages of the SEA is the ability to achieve security for long-term planning based on environmental acceptability. SEAs are not restricted to the water sector - proponents of long-term proposals, such as road infrastructure, large-scale land development and mining projects, could also benefit from an SEA level of assessment.
Outcomes
Similar to a PER, the proponent (in this case Water Corporation, with support from 360 Environmental) developed an SEA document based on environmental surveys across the area, broad-scale project description and proposal-wide impact assessment. Once approved, the document was endorsed for public comment (for approximately 10-12 weeks). The proponent addressed comments from the public and the final documentation was provided to the EPA. The EPA then advised the Minister of Environment regarding the acceptability of the proposal in its entirety. The Minister then made a decision. Once the proposal was approved the proponent could have confidence in moving forward with planning, based on the environmental acceptability of the project. Before construction of each component of the proposal begins, the proponent must submit a Derived Proposal for the consideration of the EPA and Minister. If the Derived Proposal/s can demonstrate that the proposal and receiving environment have not significantly changed since the time of the SEA approval, then no further approvals are necessary.
The SSIA SEA is the second SEA document finalised for public release in Western Australia. Issues that have been investigated and addressed as part of the SSIA SEA include:
- Terrestrial fauna (threatened and priority species)
- Flora and vegetation (Declared Rare Flora (DRF), Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs), Bush Forever, Heddles vegetation complexes)
- Potential acid sulfate soils
- Contaminated sites
- Wetlands of Conservation Significance (Ramsar, Conservation Category Wetlands, Resource Enhancement Wetlands, lakes under specific Environmental Protection Policies)
- Groundwater and surface water
- Air quality (dust, emissions)
- Noise pollution
- Waste management
- Aboriginal heritage
- European heritage
- Visual amenity
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Public safety and risk
Contact
If you require any further information or advice on formal environmental impact assessments under State or Federal legislation please contact us at admin@360environmental.com.au.
Email: admin@360environmental.com.au
Telephone: +61 8 9388 8360