1                   Introduction

1.1                  General

1.1.1.1                  BMT Asia Pacific Limited (BMT) was appointed by Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) for the Consultancy Agreement Ref. No. 2OC469 – Application for an Environmental Permit under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Ordinance (Cap. 499) for a Rooftop Helipad at the Proposed New Block at Queen Mary Hospital (QMH).

1.1.1.2                  An EIA Report has been prepared for the rooftop helipad (hereafter as “Proposed Helipad”) at the proposed new block (hereafter as “New Block”) at QMH.  The study has been prepared in accordance with the EIA Study Brief (No. ESB-284/2015) in order to identify and assess the potential environmental impacts arising from the construction and operation of the Proposed Helipad.  This Environmental Monitoring and Audit (EM&A) Manual has been prepared to specify the Project environmental monitoring and audit requirement to ensure that recommended mitigation measure are effectively implemented.

1.2             Purpose of the Manual

1.2.1.1                  This EM&A Manual has been prepared in accordance with the EIA Study Brief (No. ESB-284/2015) and the Technical Memorandum on the EIA Process (TM-EIAO).  The purpose of this EM&A Manual (hereafter as “the Manual”) are to:

l   Guide the setup of an EM&A programme to ensure the compliance with the EIA study recommendations;

l   Define the role and responsibilities of relevant personnel for undertaking the EM&A works; and

l   Provide information and systematic procedures for the monitoring, auditing and minimisation of environmental impacts associated with the activities of the Project.

1.3             Structure of the EM&A Manual

1.3.1.1                  The recommended EM&A programme in this Manual contains the following information:

l   Duties of the Contractor, the Environmental Team (ET), the Independent Environmental Checker (IEC), the Employer’s Representative (ER) and the Contractor and their respective responsibilities with regards to the EM&A requirements during construction of the Project;

l   Information on project organisation, work schedule and activities;

l   Requirements with respect to the work schedule and the necessary EM&A programme to detect the various possible environmental impacts;

l   Requirements for reviewing potential sources of pollution and assessing working procedures in the event of non-compliance with the environmental criteria;

l   Environmental monitoring protocol and their technical requirements;

l   Environmental auditing procedures;

l   Requirements for the presentation of EM&A data and appropriate reporting procedures; and

l   Complaint resolution procedures

1.3.1.2                  An Implementation Schedule (IS) for the various mitigation measures has been developed in accordance with the requirements of Clause 4.3.4.8.3 of the EIA Study Brief and is presented in Appendix A.

1.3.1.3                  For the purpose of this manual, the ET leader, who shall be responsible for in charge of the ER, shall refer to the person delegated the role of executing the EM&A requirements.

1.3.1.4                  This EM&A Manual shall be regarded as an evolving document that may need to be updated as works progress.  Should an updated EM&A Manual be required, it shall be certified by the ET Leader and verified by the Independent Environmental Checker (IEC) before submission to the Employer’s Representative (ER) and EPD for agreement