Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Gas Pipeline Transmission (Case Study: Duzduzan – Ahar)

Abstract

The national gas transmission Ahar -Duzduzan, transmit fresh gas in the West north of Iran. According to Iran's environmental regulation, construction and operation of pipelines is required EIA studies. Due to this linear project it is required to develop a particular EIA methodology on this kind of projects. Therefore at first we attempted to get a real knowledge about environmental endnotes of project with library and field studies. Along with reviewing the technical resources of the project, attempted to identify all of the construction and operation activities. Finally two methods of explanatory checklist and simplified matrix selected for EIA. In The construction phase 19 micro activities have evaluated in front of about 12 environmental factors (in the various environments). In the construction phase, activities such as; excavation, embankment and excavation show the greatest negative impact on the whole environment of area. And the most important activity with positive effects on the aforementioned factors is manpower recruitment. Also In the operation phase 15 micro activities have evaluated in front of about 15 environmental factors (in the various environments). In the Operation phase activities such as; grazing, vehicle traffic and wastewater production can have negative effects. Most positive impacts on environmental factors are revenue and welfare, employment levels, commerce and manning activities, immigration control and air quality. Most of the Operation phase effects are positive which involve; exploitation of gas or natural gas transportation and gas pipeline monitoring. According to the developed methodology it is necessary to use RS and GIS tools in the study current environment situation, routing environmental alternatives and make land use maps of transmission path. With regard to all issues presented in explanatory checklist of this project and also previous clauses from the standpoint of environmental compliance provisions there isn't any problem for implementation.