China - Inner Mongolia Transport and Trade Facilitation Project : environmental assessment summary

Executive Summary EnvironmentalImpactsAssessment and EnvironmentalmanagementPlanfor China Inner Mongolia Transport (and Trade Facilitation) Project-PO68752 July 19,2004 Inner Mongolia CommunicationBureau  A. BRIEFDESCRIPTIONOF THEPROJECT This project comprises (1) 190 km first class highway from Hailar to Manzhouli toward the national border to Russia, (2) construction of a 8 ha physical distribution center (PDC) in Haidong Industrial Estate, eastern part of Hailar City, and (3) Highway Network Improvement Program in Poverty Areas (HNIP), where five road sections, 430 km in total, will be improved. The EIA and EAP cover all o f these components. 1.TheHighway Component The proposed project is one part of the plan of "Five North-South Lines and Seven West-East Lines" of China's state highways, as well as the important component of the first west-east line o f Inner Mongolia's plan for "Three West-East Lines, Nine North-South Lines and Twelve Exits". It is also the main highway section going from the west to the east planned recently by the autonomous region, as the main framework of the highways in Inner Mongolia and the main passage connecting HulunbeierLeague and other provinces and regions inthe east of China. This line is also one mainline connecting China and Russia.Refer to Figure -1 and2. The starting point ofthis project is the end of Yakeshi-Hailar Highway and the ending point is the new Manzhouli Highway Port. The total length of the first grade line in the recommendedscheme i s 190km, belonging to plain and slight hilly area. The line goes through Chenbaerhu Town (Bayankuren), Xinbaerhu Zuo Qi, and Manzhouli City. The connection line with East Wuzhuer is 20km. One 2km-long connection line i s set up respectively to link with Chen Qi Interchange and Zalainuoer Interchange. The Construction Scale and the Technical Criteria of the ProposedProject are shown intheEIA. According to on-site investigation on the main control points, and on the basis of consultation with local governments and related departments along the line, five possible construction alternatives (A, By C, D, E) have been identified. Comprehensive analysis in respect for the engineering, economic and environmental aspects has been done and this EIA suggested adoption of the Positive Line option, which is inconsistencewiththe Feasibility Study. 2. The PhysicalDistribution Center Component A physical distribution center (PDC) will be set up at Haidong Industrial Estate, 10 km east ofHailar City. The PDC will be used as a truck terminal where importedgoods are re-loaded from Russian trucks to Chinese trucks and vise versa because Manzhouli Port, the secondlargest port in China, does not have enough facilities to changetrucks and the Russiantrucks are not allowedto enter Chineseterritory beyondHailar. The total land area occupied by the PDC is 24.6ha. The designed handling capacity of the Center i s 0.8-1 milliont per year. The construction area of housebuildings i s about 9,000 m2, including comprehensive offices, various storages (heating warehouse, refrigerated warehouse and simple storage), motels and auxiliary facilities, etc. The storages shall be ordinary storage with 8m heights piling three-layer of goods. The height ofrefrigerated warehouseis 3.6m. a  The EIA and EMPfor the above two components project were conducted by Chinese ResearchAcademy of EnvironmentalSciences and have been disclosedto the public. 3. The Highway Network Improvement Program inPovertyArea (HNIP) Five sections o f about 450 km intotal have been selected among existing highways to contribute poverty alleviation and trade facilitation. These sections will be upgraded or rehabilitated. The EIA and EMP o f this component were conducted by Inner Mongolia EnvironmentalScienceAcademy and have been disclosed to the public. B.BASELINEENVIRONMENTALDESCRIPTION The EIA has identified the following environmentally sensitive spots: (1) four residential areas with 17 to 475 households, (2) one hospital with 260 beds, (3) three seasonal rivers, and (4) Erka. This area has several wetlands, among which Dalai Lake Natural Reserve and Huihe River Natural Reserve are designated as protected areas, The Erka Wetland is not a protected area and its natural condition is not as good as the protected area, while, Erka Wetland provides good rest stop points for migrant birds. Erka Wetland occupies 4.6% o f the total wetland area in the region. The wetland area impacted by the proposed highway accounts for 0.5% of the Erka Wetland and 0.02% o fthe total wetland inthe region. The project conducted several alternative analysis to avoid Erka Wetland but no feasible alternatives have been found because (1) Highway Designing Regulation does not allow a first grade road to go across cities, just like the existing road does; (2) the northern bound o f the existing alignment goes through Zalainuoer Mineral Area, which has very poor underground conditions with many tunnels; (3) The southern boundis limited space which is only prepared for the railway development. (4) The hrther southern area is Dalai Laker National Nature Reserve; and (5) the only possible alignment is on the north side of the existing alignment, i.e. Erka Wetland. C.POTENIAL,ENVIRONMENTALIMPACTSAND MITIGATIONMEASURES 1.Typical EnvironmentalProblemsby Highway Comprehensive analyses have been conducted for air pollution, noise, and water pollution, material transportation, solid wastes, construction camps, pollution risk by dangerous goods, accumulative and indirect impacts, and traffic safety. EIA recommended an established set o f mitigation measures for these typical problems and concluded that these typical potential impacts can be prevented or mitigatedto an acceptable level inthe light o f national regulations. All the mitigation measures are 2  complied inthe Environmental Action Plan. The EMPalso covers sanitationissue of construction camps. In addition, the environmental impact and assessment includes solid waste environmentalimpact,. 2. Ecological Impacts by Highway In order to improve the quality of assessment, one international and two local ecological experts were invited to take part inthe surveys. They all agreed that (1) while the construction of the highway would have some amount of impacts to the ecological environment, the operation would have little impacts; (2) both impacts would be mitigated to an acceptable level if appropriate mitigation measures are taken; and (3) the project can even have positive impacts to the better protection of Erka Wetland. The proposed mitigation measures include (1) among 190 km of the highway, 106.5 kmwill beup-gradedfrom the existinghighway and only the 83.5 km will be newly constructed; (2) at Erka Wetland, eight bridges and ten culverts will be constructedto reduce impacts to hydrology; (3) no access roads into the wetland will be made; (4) temporal land occupation will be minimized; (5) horning will be prohibited and the speed limit will be reduced in the wetland area; (6) the local government will establish a protection plan of the wetland; (7) eco-tourism will be promoted to enhance the understanding of people on the protection o f the wetland; and (8) special ecological monitoring will be conducted during construction period andthree years inthe operation period. 3. Culturalrelics Itis notanticipated, but ifany cultural relics are foundduringconstruction, excavationwill be stopped immediately, and the local cultural authority will be informed of the discovery. Construction will not resume until the cultural relics have been identified bythe authorizedinstitutionand necessarypreservationmeasureshavebeentaken. 4. Impactsby the PhysicalDistributionCenter The PDC is located in the existing Haidon industrial area and there are no environmentally sensitive spots around there. Appropriate wastewater treatment facilities including a emergency shutdown systemfor accidentswill beinstalled. D. PUBLIC CONSULTATION A two-stage public consultation was carried out: (a) shortly aRer environmental screening and before the terms of reference for the EA were finalized (September 2003); and (b) after the draft EA report was prepared (November 2003). The consultation was conducted by meetings with local people at project-affected towns and surveys through questionnaires. Project-affected individuals, organizations of 3  concernedvillagers, andvillage committeeswere intensivelyconsulted. Apart from the resettlement-related issues, the public showed concerns about social disruption by expressway, and environmental protection during construction. They requestedthat adequate mitigationmeasuresbetaken. Their feedback is reflected in the engineering designs and the EN. The major issues reflected into the project design is that (1) the number of culverts was increased from 104 to 110 and the number of pass ways from 30 to 47; (2) budget for rehabilitation of vegetation is ensured; (3) a dumping site will be movedto behind a mountainso as not to damage the scenic view. E.ENVIRONMENTALMANAGEMENTAND MONITORINGPROGRAM 1.EnvironmentalManagement Environment Action Plans describes the implementation scheme of proposed mitigation measures. At each level of supervision of construction work, staff in charge of environment protection will be appointed and necessary training will be conductedfor those staff Necessarycost for the implementationwas estimated and budgetwill be allocatedaccordingly. 2. Environment Monitoring During the construction and operation phases, environmental monitoring will be carried out to verify the project's actual impacts on the environment, identify unexpected environmental problems at an early stage, and adjust environmental measures as appropriate. Environmental monitoring will be conducted by the Environmental Protection Office of Inner Mongolia CommunicationDepartment at construction stage. At operational stage, it will be entrustedto local environmental monitoringcenters. The results of monitoringwill be reportedquarterlyto the Bank andlocalenvironment authorities. Special ecological monitoring will be conducted during the construction period and the first three years of the operation in order to observe the impacts of the project to the wetland and to take additional mitigation measures if necessary. The national independent experts who were involved in the preparation of EIA will be asked to take part inthe monitoring. F.CONCLUSION The construction of Hailar - Manzhouli Highway will have outstanding socioeconomic benefits and thus have been widely supported by the public. The routing of highway line is reasonable from the viewpoint of engineering economy, 4  and environment, with the route avoiding cities and towns such as Hailar District, Bayankuren Town, Zalainuoer Mineral Area and Manzhouli City. Accordingly, the line has to go through ErkaWetland. Intensive surveys and analysis have conducted and a comprehensive set of mitigation measures not only to prevent and mitigate negative impacts but also to improve protection of the wetland have been developed. Ifthose measuresare implemented appropriately, thenegativeenvironmentalimpacts by the project will be mitigated to an acceptable level for the society. Thus, Environmental Action Planwas preparedto implementthose mitigation measures and to monitor environmental situation during construction and operation. This EIA concludes that the proposed project is feasible and acceptable in respect of environmentalprotection. 5   Figure-1 Map o f Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region   Figure-2 Map ofRoutingLocation ofthe ProposedProject