Advisory Council on the Environment

Confirmed Minutes of the 62nd Meeting of the Advisory Council on the Environment held on 31 May 1999 at 2:30 p.m.

Present:

Mr. Peter H. Y. WONG, JP (Chairman)
Mr. CHAN Kwok-wai, JP
Miss Ann CHIANG
Mr. Barrie COOK
Professor Anthony HEDLEY, JP
Professor Peter HILLS
Professor LAM Kin-che
Mr. Joseph LAU Man-wai, JP
Mr. LIN Chaan-ming
Dr. NG Cho-nam
Mr. PAO Ping-wing, JP
Mr. Otto L. T. POON
Mr. Michael J. D. RUSHWORTH
Ms Iris TAM
Miss Alex YAU
Mr. Plato YIP
Mr. Danny TSUI (Secretary)

Absent with Apologies:

Mr. Clement CHEN
Mr. Paul C. H. FAN
Dr. HO Kin-chung
Mr. Edwin Lau
The Hon. Dr. LEONG Che-hung
Mr. Tan Teng Huat

In Attendance:
Mr. Gordon Siu	Secretary for Planning, Environment & Lands (SPEL)
Mr. Kim SALKELD	Deputy Secretary for Planning, Environment & Lands (Environment) (DS(E), PELB)
Mr. Rob LAW	Director of Environmental Protection (DEP)
Mr. Raymond Chiu	Assistant Director (Technical Services), Planning Department (AD, Plan D)
Mr. S P LAU	Assistant Director (Conservation), Agriculture and Fisheries Department (AFD) (AD, AFD)
Mr. David CHAN	Principal Information Officer, Environmental Protection Department (EPD)
Mr. Eugene FUNG	Assistant Secretary for Planning, Environment & Lands (Environment)
Miss Cora SO	Executive Officer (Environment), Planning, Environment & Lands Bureau (PELB)
In Attendance for Agenda Item 4:
Mr. Peter A. Rull	Assistant Director (Leisure Policy), Urban Services Department (USD) (AD, USD)
Mr. Cheung Yiu-fai	Senior Staff Officer (Green Campaign), USD (SSO, USD)
In Attendance for Agenda Item 5:
Mr. Chau Chi-wai	Chief Engineer/Planning, Water Supplies Department (WSD) (CE, WSD)
Mr. Li Wah-chung	Senior Engineer/Computer Services, WSD (SE, WSD)
In Attendance for Agenda Item 6 :
Mr. Steve Barclay	Principal Assistant Secretary (Environment)2, PELB (PAS(E)2, PELB)
Mrs. Shirley Lee	Principal Environmental Protection Officer (Urban Assessment), EPD (PEPO, EPD)
In Attendance for Agenda Item 7 :
Lantau North-South Link
Ms. Shirley Lam	Principal Assistant Secretary (Transport), Transport Bureau (PAS(T), TB)
Mr. John Chai	Deputy Project Manager (Major Works Project Management Office), Highways Department (Hy D) (DPM, Hy D)
Mr. Li Wai	Senior Engineer (MWPMO), Hy D (SE, Hy D)
Mr. C.W. Li	Senior Engineer (Traffic Engineering (NT/W) Division), Transport Department (SE, TD)
Flightpaths for the Second Runway
Mr. Simon Li	Chief Planning Officer, Civil Aviation Department (CPO, CAD)

*********************

Action

The Chairman told Members that the Economic Services Bureau (ESB) had decided not to attend this meeting, after they had considered the agenda.

Agenda Item 1 : Confirmation of Minutes of 61st Meeting held on 30 March 1999

2.The minutes of the 61st meeting were confirmed, subject to a few minor amendments to paragraph 17.

Agenda Item 2 : Matters Arising

Para. 4 : Invitation to Transport Bureau / Transport Department to send a representative to sit on ACE/EIA Subcommittee

3.The Chairman told Members that the Transport Bureau (TB) had agreed to attend ACE meetings on a need basis. On this basis, TB would attend the "Any Other Business" session of this meeting to brief Members on the "Lantau North-South Link". Para. 8 : Visit to the State Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental agencies in Beijing

4.Members noted the reports prepared by a Member and the Secretary of ACE respectively. A Member said it was encouraging that, on more than one occasion during the visit, the State Environmental Protection Agency had encouraged this Council to liaise more closely with the Guangdong Provincial authorities on environmental issues of mutual concern, including the environmental impacts of major cross-boundary infrastructure projects. To establish dialogue with the Guangdong authorities, another Member proposed that this Council pay a visit to the relevant authorities in Guangdong in the coming months. Members supported the proposal and started discussing and identifying possible authorities in Guangdong to be visited. Although ACE did not have a counterpart within the structure of the Guangdong Provincial government, Members considered the Environment and Resources Committee of the Peoples' Congress of the Guangdong Province, the acedemic institutions in Guangdong and the Environmental Protection Bureau of Guangdong possible visiting targets. The Chairman requested the Secretariat to arrange a visit for Members to Guangdong on this basis around July/August this year.

Secretariat

5.A Member said that exchanges and visits among academics in the Mainland and Hong Kong had been common and frequent in the past few years. This was because many local higher education institutions organised public seminars and forums in collaboration with their counterparts in the Mainland or invited academics from the Mainland to participate as guest-speakers. He undertook to circulate details of such activities to Members in future for reference. Another Member informed Members that the Hong Kong Institutions of Engineers would be organising a conference with the Guangdong Academy of Science and Technology around November this year in Hong Kong on sustainable development and cross-boundary environmental issues. He undertook to forward the details to Members in due course.

Para. 37 : FoE's presentation on "Restructuring Hong Kong's Power Sector and Maintaining Environmental Priorities" 6.Members noted that the DSM plans would be reviewed and would unlikely be implemented before 1999. As a result, the presentation by the two power companies on their DSM plans, as well as FoE's presentation, would be deferred to a later stage.

[Post-meeting Note : As FoE would be attending the LegCo Panel on Economic Services on 28 June to present their paper entitled "Restructuring Hong Kong's Power Sector and Maintaining Environmental Priorities", a Member offered to present that paper to ACE on 28 June as well.]

Para. 41 : Sha Lo Tung SSSI - Habitat Degradation

That Member

That other Member

7.Members noted that the Secretariat would copy to them PELB's reply to WWF's letter of 16 March 1999 regarding the Sha Lo Tung SSSI after the meeting.

[Post-meeting note : A copy of PELB's letter of 4 May 1999 was issued to Members on 10 June 1999.]

Para 44 : ACE papers circulated for endorsement

8.Members noted that as there was no meeting in April, the Secretariat had sought Members' endorsement of the Report of the 42nd EIA Subcommittee Meeting (ACE Paper 14/99) and the Air Pollution Control (Vehicle Design Standards) (Emissions) (Amendment) Regulation 1999 (Cap.311, sub.leg.J) through circulation of papers. Both had been endorsed by Members.

Agenda Item 3 : Report of the 43rd EIA Subcommittee Meeting

(ACE Paper 17/99)

9.The EIA Subcommittee Chairman reported that the EIA Subcommittee had considered two EIA reports at its meeting on 3 May 1999, namely Supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment for Clinical Waste Disposal at Chemical Waste Treatment Centre and Dualling of Hiram's Highway between Clear Water Bay Road and Marina Cove and Improvement to Local Access to Ho Chung. The former was recommended for endorsement on the three conditions set out in para. 10 of ACE Paper 17/99. The latter was recommended for endorsement without conditions.

10.Noting that the emission level of mercury during the burning of clinical waste at the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre (CWTC) would be an environmental concern, the Chairman proposed and Members agreed that, apart from the three conditions recommended by the EIA Subcommittee, the project proponent for the clinical waste disposal scheme should be required to "satisfy EPD with the mercury emission level in the burning of clinical waste at the CWTC".

11.Members endorsed the EIA report regarding the widening of the Hiram's Highway and improvement to local access to Ho Chung without conditions.

Agenda Item 4 : Information on Provisional Urban Council's Greening Policy and Green Hong Kong Campaign

(ACE Paper 18/99)

12.The Chairman welcomed AD, USD and SSO, USD to the meeting. AD, USD briefed Members on the Provisional Urban Council's (PUC) greening policy and their Green Hong Kong Campaign.

13.A Member asked whether the Urban Services Department (USD) had a policy for conserving and promoting indigenous species of trees and plants and, if so, whether they would prefer indigenous species to exogenous ones in their tree planting programmes. He commented that as indigenous trees were unique to Hong Kong, they were more able to attract indigenous species of birds. He said that according to the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, more than 90 species of birds inhabited the Kowloon Park, where most of the trees were of indigenous species. AD, USD said that USD would as far as possible make use of indigenous species, such as banyan and camphor, in their tree planting programmes. However, he explained that it might not always be possible to do so since indigenous species might not be as enduring as exogenous species, particularly along roadsides in the urban areas.

The Secretariat

14.In response to a Member's queries, AD, USD said that USD had a team of about 300 officers trained in arboriculture and horticulture and another 100 contract labourers for carrying out tree-maintenance work. Besides, USD had recruited about 1,500 amateurs as ambassadors and had provided training to them on tree maintenance. These 1,500 ambassadors were now helping USD to maintain trees in the districts where they resided. That Member asked and AD, USD said that the Green Hong Kong Campaign had a budget of about $10 million a year. He undertook to let Members have USD's annual expenditure on their greening programmes.

15.A Member said that the Corporate Afforestation Scheme was warmly received by the private sector, as manifested by the increasing number of companies which joined the Scheme and the increasing number of trees being planted inside country parks under the Scheme. He opined that similar initiatives could be carried out by USD in the urban areas. AD, USD explained that the major difficulties associated with tree planting in the urban areas were the lack of suitable sites rather than the lack of resources. The Chairman remarked that as the density of trees in the urban areas was already very high when compared with the limited areas available, there was little room for USD to intensify their tree planting programmes unless further sites were identified. Moreover, he was concerned over road safety as trees along the roads may obstruct views of coming traffic.

USD

16.In response to a Member's queries, AD, USD said that the Regional Services Department (RSD) was responsible for planting trees within the Regional Council areas. While USD and RSD carried out greening programmes on their own, they had been maintaining close liaison with each other and had been organising joint publicity activities, such as flower shows. That Member commented that there should be room for RSD to expand their tree planting programmes, since there was still a lot of open space within the Regional Council areas. In this connection, the Chairman proposed and Members agreed that RSD should be invited to attend a future ACE meeting to brief Members on their greening programmes. That Member asked and AD, USD assured Members that the current re-structuring of the two Provisional Municipal Councils would not affect their greening programmes.

17.In response to a Member's queries, AD, USD said that USD was only responsible for the management of trees inside parks, on public streets, along highways, underneath flyovers and on stabilised slopes in the urban areas. Therefore, it could not stop a private developer from removing trees for development if the trees were not located within the aforementioned areas. However, through USD's "Champion Tree Scheme", the community had become more aware of the existence of valuable and important trees within the urban areas and the need to conserve them. By raising the awareness of the community to conserve valuable trees, more and more valuable trees had been saved from development in the past.

18.The Chairman said that he was concerned about the proliferation of "shotcreted" slopes along many new expressways and roads, such as Kennedy Road where he lived. He said that the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO), Civil Engineering Department seemed to have abandoned the conventional practice of stabilizing slopes by means of planting trees and grass and had resorted to indiscriminate "shotcreting" instead. A Member said that the Working Group on Nature Conservation had raised similar concern at its last meeting. Members noted that representatives from the GEO would attend the ACE meeting in July to give a detailed presentation on their slope stabilization works.

19.The Chairman commended USD for their efforts in keeping the urban areas green and exhorted them to keep up their good work.

Agenda Item 5 : The Impact of Y2K Problem on Water Supply System

(ACE Paper 19/99)

20.The Chairman welcomed CE, WSD and SE, WSD to the meeting. SE, WSD briefed Members on the paper.

21.In response to a Member's queries, CE, WSD assured Members that even if the supply of Dongjiang water to Hong Kong was disrupted as a result of Y2K problem in Guangdong, there would be sufficient reserve in local reservoirs for maintaining 24 - hour uninterrupted water supply to the local community for three months. SE, WSD supplemented that Hong Kong's reservoirs were 95% full at present. Unless the amount of rainfall during the coming summer season was lower than average, all the reservoirs would still be at least 90% full during the winter months.

Secretariat

22.Noting that the rectification work for Water Supplies Department (WSD)'s Mainland Southwest Regional SCADA System, which was a mission - critical system, was scheduled for completion in June 1999, the Chairman requested WSD to report to this Council upon the completion of the rectification work around July/August 1999.

Agenda Item 6 : The Green Manager Scheme and Controlling Officer's Environmental Report

(ACE Paper 20/99)

23.The Chairman welcomed PAS(E)2, PELB and PEPO, EPD to the meeting. PAS(E)2, PELB briefed Members on the progress of the Green Manager Scheme and the Controlling Officer's Environmental Report.

24.Noting that the Architectural Services Department (ASD) and Government Supplies Department (GSD) had already issued their environmental reports, which was well ahead of the requirement for bureaux / departments to publish their first environmental reports in 2000, the Chairman asked when EPD would publish theirs. DEP said that EPD would submit their environmental report as required in 2000.

25.A Member expressed concern about the increase in the consumption of paper within the government over the past few years. He recalled that he had expressed similar concern in May 1998 when the Administration briefed Members on the progress of the Green Manager Scheme. The explanation then was that the increase in the consumption of paper could have been due to the need to print new stationary with HKSAR's logo and letterheads as a consequence of the return of sovereignty. However, the consumption of paper had kept on increasing since then, though the increase was only 1% from 1997 to 1998. He asked whether the Administration would take positive steps to reduce the use of paper, such as promoting the wider use of e-mail among government bureaux / departments. PAS(E)2, PELB pointed out that although wider use of e-mail could, theoretically speaking, have saved paper, the actual amount of paper being saved would depend on various factors, particularly the willingness of individual officers to refrain from printing hard copies. He hoped that the requirement for Controlling Officers to publish annual Environmental Reports would provide the incentive for individual bureaux / departments to carry out green housekeeping measures.

26.A Member was of the view that if individual bureaux / departments were allowed to retain the amount of money that they had saved from practising green housekeeping and decide how that money was to be spent, there would be greater incentives for them to save more. Another Member supplemented that some local universities were providing incentives to individual departments by allowing them to retain 10% of their non-staff expenditure savings. DEP said that at present bureaux / departments could make use of their savings identified in one area to cover expenses in other areas, though the savings could not be brought forward to the next financial year.

27.A Member opined that it would provide additional incentives to bureaux / departments to perform environmentally if a "Green Manager Award" Scheme was in place. The Chairman considered this a noteworthy idea. He said that ACE could consider organising a competition whereby bureaux / departments could, on a voluntary basis, submit their environmental reports to the ACE for consideration of awards. More than one award could be granted, on the basis of different criteria such as the achievements bureaux / departments had made in implementing green housekeeping in the past, their potential for making improvements in future and their current performance vis-a-vis that of the preceding year. If necessary, a vetting committee could be set up under the ACE to vet environmental reports submitted by bureaux / departments and select the meritorious ones. Since bureaux / departments would start publishing their environmental reports in 2000, he proposed that the ACE re-visit this proposal nearer the time.

WSD

28.A Member commented that a lot of paper could have been saved if Members were provided with soft copies of the ACE papers and reports only, or if the papers and reports were issued to Members through electronic means. She said that ACE should set a good example for other committees to follow by heading towards paperless meetings. To make this possible, there should be adequate number of computer points around the conference table to support each and every Members' portable computer at the meetings. She said that at the Regional Council's meetings, each Councillor was provided with a desktop computer. Another Member opined that the proposal for paperless meetings were easier said than done. Also, there were many practical difficulties that would need to be overcome first, such as the difficulties of browsing through bulky reports on the computer screen. DEP commented that even in European countries and the U.S., where the community was more conscious of green housekeeping, people were still relying substantially on hard copy documents at meetings. The Chairman said that although ACE could not go for paperless meetings at one step, there was definitely room for it to save paper. For instance, instead of providing Members with bulky EIA reports, Members could be given a CD-ROM so that they could read the text from the computer monitor and only print those sections of the EIA reports which they deemed necessary. PEPO, EPD informed Members that project proponents were already required to submit EIA reports to EPD in soft copies so that the reports could be made available on EPD's website. The Chairman remarked that since it was time-consuming to download voluminous EIA reports from the website, EPD should consider making EIA reports available in CD-ROM in the long term. As regards other papers, the Chairman proposed that they be distributed to Members by e-mail as far as possible. The Chairman further proposed that this Council issue an annual report, with a section on its efforts to operate in an environmentally friendly manner.

EPD

ACE Secretariat

29.Regarding energy saving, a Member said that bureaux / departments might need to invest in energy-saving systems in order to save energy in the long term. He asked whether bureaux / departments had made allowance for that at all. PAS(E)2, PELB said that Controlling Officers could apply for the "Invest To Save Fund" from Finance Bureau for the start-up capital on energy - saving devices.

30.A Member told Members that the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) would be organising a seminar on environmental reporting in June to provide an overview on how government departments / private organisations should report on their environmental performance. Also, he said that the HKPC had collaborated with a US company which specialised in comprehensive energy efficiency projects to provide consultancy to the public and private sectors on how to save energy through an energy partnership program. He undertook to provide details of the seminar and the energy partnership program to Members after the meeting.

That Member

31.The Chairman thanked PAS(E)2, PELB and PEPO, EPD for the presentation.

Agenda Item 7 : Any Other Business

Lantau North-South Link

32.The Chairman welcomed PAS(T), TB, DPM, Hy D, SE, Hy D and SE, TD to the meeting. PAS(T), TB and DPM, Hy D briefed Members on the proposal.

33.The Chairman was concerned that the proposed Lantau North-South Link would encourage residential developments in South Lantau. PAS(T), TB said that she was not aware of major new developments in South Lantau. She explained that the proposed Link aimed to provide a safe alternative to the sub-standard Tung Chung Road. Like the existing Tung Chung Road, there would be restricted access to the Link through a permit system. AD, Plan D supplemented that the Planning Department had no plan at present to change the land use planning in South Lantau, including Mui Wo. He emphasized that it was on the basis of transport and traffic safety considerations rather than planning consideration that the proposal for constructing the Link was made.

34.A Member considered it unconvincing that the government would spend $1.3 billion on a new road which would serve an area with a mere population of about 40,000 people. He was concerned that once the Link was in place, there would be pressure for the government to increase the number of vehicle permits for the Link drastically. PAS(T), TB assured Members that access to the proposed Link would be restricted to the residents in South Lantau, public coaches and vehicles which provided essential utilities and emergency services (e.g. ambulance).

35.Two Members asked about the number of traffic accidents on Tung Chung Road in the past few years and the number of fatal accidents there. PAS(T), TB said that there were 31 accidents on Tung Chung Road in 1998 but fortunately none of them were fatal accidents. She undertook to provide Members with the annual traffic accident figures on Tung Chung Road for the past few years after the meeting. She said that the government had to plan ahead to protect the safety of the public rather than to take remedial actions afterwards.

[Post-meeting note : The annual number of traffic accidents on Tung Chung Road for the past three years are as follows :

	1996	1997	1998	1999(up to May)
With injuries	2	2	3	5
Vehicles damage only	7	15	28	11
Total	9	17	31	16

36.SPEL said that he had been to Tung Chung Road on various occasions in the past and realized how dangerous the road was. He said that it would be a good idea if Members could take a ride along the Tung Chung Road to appreciate the potential danger of the Road. The Chairman agreed and PAS(T), TB undertook to make arrangements on this as soon as possible.

37.A Member said that it would be useful if Members were presented with the findings of the feasibility and EIA studies which the Administration had so far carried out regarding the proposal for providing relief to the sub-standard Tung Chung Road, including the options for widening the Road and building the proposed Link. He remarked that the proposed Link might have significant ecological impact on the Tai Ho River, which was the only remaining natural stream in Hong Kong. Another Member pointed out that there was another on-going project carried out by the Territory Development Department (TDD) entitled "Remaining Development in Tung Chung and Tai Ho" which would generate significant ecological impact to the Tai Ho River. He therefore requested that ACE be briefed on the latter project as well. Timing-wise, The other Member said that it would be too late if ACE was consulted when the EIA reports for these two projects were finalised. He therefore requested that ACE be briefed on the initial findings of these two projects as soon as possible.

38.The Chairman said that as TDD was still in the process of receiving representations from the public regarding the "Remaining Development in Tung Chung and Tai Ho", they had not yet formulated an initial view on it. However, TDD had offered to brief ACE after they had formulated their initial views in July / August and again when the final EIA report was ready. He agreed that the two proposals were inter-related and should be considered together. In this regard, he proposed the following way forward:

(a)	TB to arrange a site visit for Members to the Tung Chung Road to look at the safety aspect;
(b)	TD/Hy D to present the following reports relating to the proposal for the Lantau North-south Link to the EIA subcommittee for consideration in July -
	(i)	the feasibility study on improving the Tung Chung Road into a standard two-lane road
	(ii)	the alignment option assessment report
	(iii)	the Initial Assessment Report for the EIA
(c)	TDD to present the initial findings of the "Remaining Development in Tung Chung and Tai Ho" to ACE in July.

39.The Chairman requested the secretariat to follow up the above with the relevant bureaux / departments.

Flight paths for the Second Runway

40.The Chairman welcomed CPO, CAD to the meeting. CPO, CAD explained that there were two directions for aircraft to land at and depart from the new airport respectively. Aircraft could approach either from the northeast overflying Sha Tin, Tsing Yi and Kwai Chung or from the southwest flying across the sea. Likewise, they could depart to the east by flying over Hung Hom, North Point and Chaiwan or to the west over the sea. For aircraft departing to the east, some could take the southbound route when they had come to Ma Wan, thereby overflying the West Lamma Channel instead. Since the second runway had come into operation, landing would mainly take place on the second runway whereas the first runway would be used for takeoff. There had been no change to the departure flightpaths, but the arrival flightpaths (both the northeast and southwest ones) had been shifted to the north by about 1.5km. Aircraft approaching from the northeast using the second runway for landing would therefore overfly Kau To Shan, West Tsuen Wan and residential developments along the Castle Peak Road, rather than Sha Tin, Tsing Yi and Kwai Chung. The routes across the sea were the noise mitigation routes and all aircraft which arrived at or departed from the airport between midnight and 0700 were requested to make use of those routes as far as possible. However, the wind direction could make it impossible for aircraft to take those routes. Since the new airport had come into operation in 1998, the compliance rate for arriving aircraft to adopt the noise mitigation routes between midnight and 0700 was over 90% whereas that for departing aircraft over the West Lamma Channel between 2300 and 0700 was over 95%. Also, the number of complaints about noise nuisance had dropped from about 20 complaints per day when the new airport first came into operation in 1998 to one per day now.

41.In response to the Chairman's query, CPO, CAD said that the noise contours that the EIA for the new airport had based on had already taken into account the accumulated noise impact after the operation of dual runway at designed capacity. Although Tai Lam was assessed to be within the NEF25 contour, the only area being affected was the prison there.

42.A Member asked why the percentage of compliance with the noise mitigation measures had dropped over the last two months. CPO, CAD said that wind conditions and temporary suspension of runway for landing from the southwest to facilitate calibration of landing aids could have affected the percentage. That Member further asked and CPO, CAD said that it would be difficult to predict the trend for the next few months since wind direction and weather conditions could have made all the differences. Moreover, since the airport had been in operation for less than a year, there was not sufficient data for CAD to make accurate projections.

ACE Secretariat

43.Noting that the academics and District Board (DB) Members had also measured the aircraft noise level and had yielded higher readings than that of the Administration, a Member asked whether that was because the measurements were taken at different locations. CPO, CAD said that most of CAD's stations for measuring aircraft noise were located on the rooftops of buildings which were directly located under the flightpaths so as to eliminate other noise sources. He supplemented that CAD used Type 1 equipment with tolerance of +-1 dB to measure noise levels. In view of the discrepancies in the measurement results between CAD and the academics and DB Members, the Chairman proposed that CAD should invite DB Members and academics to conduct joint measurements in future. CPO, CAD undertook to consider this proposal.

CAD

44.The Chairman thanked CPO, CAD for his presentation and urged CAD to continue to ensure that the noise mitigation measures were properly implemented.

Tentative Schedule of Work for ACE in 1999

45.Members noted the tentative schedule of work for ACE in 1999.

Visit to Factories which Practiced Good Environmental Management

46.The visit was scheduled for 1 June.

Informal Meeting with LegCo EA Panel

47.Members noted that the informal meeting with the LegCo EA Panel was tentatively scheduled for 2 November 1999.

Monitoring of Compliance of Recommended Mitigation Measures by EIA Projects

48.A Member said that it would be in the interest of the ACE to ensure that project proponents had complied with the environmental mitigation measures, which were identified in the EIA reports and endorsed by the ACE, both during the construction and operation of their projects. DEP said that EPD, which was the licensing authority of the environmental permits, had been monitoring designated projects under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance to ensure that the recommended mitigation measures had been properly implemented. The Chairman said that it would be worthwhile for the EIA Subcommittee to consider whether it could have oversight of the monitoring of the EIA projects. The EIA Subcommittee Chairman undertook to discuss this issue at the coming EIA Subcommittee.

EIA
Subcommittee

Agenda Item 8 : Date of Next Meeting

49.The next meeting was scheduled for 28 June 1999.

Planning, Environment and Lands Bureau
June 1999