Dear clients,
New EIA Regulations and three Listing Notices (list of activities requiring either a Basic Assessment or scoping and EIA) were promulgated on 8 December 2014. These replace the 2010 Regulations (with the exception of Chapters 5 and 7) and three old Listing Notices.
In addition, National Exemption Regulations were published under the National Environmental Management Act. Section 24M of the Act states that the Minister or an MEC, as the case may be, may grant an exemption from any provision of the Act, except from a provision of section 24(4)(a) or the requirement to obtain an environmental authorisation contemplated in section 24(2)(a) or (b). The purpose of the Regulations is to set out the process contemplated in section 24M(3) relating to the lodging and processing of an application for exemption in terms of the Act. The Regulations also repeal Chapter 5 of the 2010 EIA Regulations. Chapter 5 deals with EIA exemptions. Exemptions are now governed by the National Exemption Regulations.
National Appeal Regulations were promulgated under the Act. Section 43 states that any person may appeal to the Minister against a decision taken by any person acting under a power delegated by the Minister under this Act or a specific environmental management Act (eg. Air Quality Act, Waste Act, National Water Act). The Regulations set out the procedure contemplated in section 43(4) of the Act relating to the submission, processing and consideration of, a decision on an appeal. The Regulations also repeal Chapter 7 of the 2010 EIA Regulations. Chapter 7 deals with appeals against EIA decisions. Appeals against EIA’s are now governed by the National Appeal Regulations.
With the concurrent coming into force of the last two Regulations the 2010 EIA Regulations were therefore completely repealed on 8 December 2014.
Legal register users can view copies of the above on the online legal registers. Alternatively, we can email them to you (if so, please contact Ines Stoll at ines.stoll@dittke.com).
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.
Kind regards
Mark Dittke Attorney