On some challenges of environmental impact assessment of small hydropower plants in Ukraine

Abstract

One of the pressing problems of today is the greening of nature management, which is recognized as one of the fundamental components of the newest concept of “sustainable” development. The Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment”, adopted in 2017, has opened up new opportunities for environmental review and regulation of potentially hazardous activities related to the use of natural resources, with involvement of the general public in decision-making processes. According to this Law, hydropower plants on rivers, regardless of their capacity, are also included in the types of planned activities and objects that can have a significant environmental impact and are subject to environmental impact assessment. Thus, at the legislative level, it is recognized that so-called “small hydropower plants” are capable of adversely affecting the environment and should be considered environmentally and socially dangerous until the opposite is established by the results of the environmental expertise. It is because of the small capacity of hydropower plants in numerous publications of various domestic authors that the idea that small hydropower plants can not adversely affect the environment and are environmentally safe has been formed and continues to be upheld. Due to this, small hydropower has received the status of “green” energy and state supporting in the form of various attenuations, in particular at the expense of “green” tariff. Our analysis of notifications of planned activities that are subject to the environmental impact assessment coming into the Unified Registry for Environmental Impact Assessment and of the environmental impact assessment reports materials shows that private investors are openly abusing these preferences. Notifications of planned activities, environmental impact assessment reports are prepared in a frankly poor and non-professional manner, mostly by persons who are little connected for research or have an opinion on the absolute environmental safety of small hydropower plants. As a result, information provided to the public often turns out to be incomplete, one-sided, distorted, and in some cases, untrue. The article highlights the most pressing problems encountered during the practical implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment” regarding the construction and operation of small hydropower plants, which could be in interest of scientific and engineering communities, officials and the public.