4.6.11 For some specialist topics, additional categories have been added where a greater level of definition is required.
4.6.12 Effects predicted to be Minor Adverse or Negligible are considered to be manageable and are therefore 'Not Significant'. Effects assessed as Moderate Adverse or Major Adverse are considered to be 'Significant'.
4.6.13 These classifications may differ between the specialist topic chapters, but where this occurs, the variation will be explained clearly and fully.
iv. Types of Effect
4.6.14 Potential effects have been separated into three types based on the different phases of development:
- Construction Effects: These are effects that begin and end during the construction phase of the Project. This covers the likes of the potential effects of construction traffic, noise and vibration from construction, dust generation, site runoff, mud on roads, risk of fuel/oil spillage, visual intrusion of machinery on site for example.
- Operational Effects: Operational effects are those long-term effects that would occur as a result of the Project such as the land take associated with permanent physical infrastructure as well as effects which occur as a result of its operation.
- Decommissioning Effects: Decommissioning effects are temporary, short term effects that will occur during the removal of the Project at the end of its 25 year operational life time.
b) Mitigation and Monitoring
4.6.15 Full consideration has been given to the potential mitigation measures which could be used to ensure that any potentially adverse significant environmental effects of the Project are minimised. In the hierarchy of mitigation, likely significant adverse effects should, in the first instance, be avoided altogether; where this is not possible such effects should then reduce and, finally, be off-set.
4.6.16 Two broad types of potential mitigation measures have been applied in this preliminary EIA and are described in the PEIR.
- Embedded mitigation: This includes modifications to the location or design of the Project made during the pre-application phase that are an inherent part of the Project, become a fundamental part of the design for which consent is sought, and do not require additional action to be taken (e.g. architectural treatment of proposed facilities to be in keeping with similar adjacent buildings in its external appearance; reduction in the height of a building to reduce visual impact; identifying a key habitat that should remain unaffected by the Project's layout and operation e.g. retaining a hedgerows as bat foraging routes;