Environmental Compliance Assessment Research Articles

Environmental compliance assessment for the desulfurization of sulfide mine waste tailings: A case study of Ok Tedi Mine, Papua New Guinea

The effective management of sulfide mine waste tailings is a complex task because of the potential for acid rock drainage to harm aquatic ecosystems. Although previous research has explored the environmental consequences of sulfide mine waste tailings and the potential advantages of desulfurization method, there is a lack of studies examining the environmental compliance of desulfurization efforts. To bridge this knowledge gap, a study was conducted at the Ok Ted Mine to evaluate the environmental compliance of the implemented desulfurization process. Ninety samples of sulfide tailing, desulfurized tailing, and sulfide concentrate were collected and analyzed for geochemical and physical properties. The acid-generating capacities were assessed using the Sobek's static test, whereas the particle size, pH, and recovery were evaluated for the overall performance of the desulfurization process. These findings indicated that the desulfurization process significantly reduced the acid-generating capacity and heavy metal concentrations of the sulfide tailings below the regulatory threshold levels. Therefore, the desulfurization approach employed at the Ok Ted Mine comply with the environmental regulaotry requirments. For further assessment, a study is recommended to evaluate the impact of desulfurization on the ecosystem to predict full extent of biodiversity recovery after mine life.

Tracking Environmental Compliance and Remediation Trajectories Using Image-Based Anomaly Detection Methodologies

Recent interest in use of satellite remote sensing for environmental compliance and remediation assessment has been heightened by growing policy requirements and the need to provide more rapid and efficient monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. However, remote sensing solutions are attractive only to the extent that they can deliver environmentally relevant information in a meaningful and time-sensitive manner. Unfortunately, the extent to which satellite-based remote sensing satisfies the demands for compliance and remediation assessment under the conditions of an actual environmental accident or calamity has not been well documented. In this study a remote sensing solution to the problem of site remediation and environmental compliance assessment was introduced based on the use of the RDX anomaly detection algorithm and vegetation indices developed from the Tasseled Cap Transform. Results of this analysis illustrate how the use of standard vegetation transforms, integrated into an anomaly detection strategy, enable the time-sequenced tracking of site remediation progress. Based on these results credible evidence can be produced to support compliance evaluation and remediation assessment following major environmental disasters.

Implementing remote sensing strategies to support environmental compliance assessment: A neural network application

Abstract Environmental compliance assessment and enforcement are complex, labor intensive tasks that would benefit from some form of decision support. Despite the well-documented application of remote sensing in environmental analysis and assessment, the operational use of this technology for environmental compliance enforcement remains in its infancy. Because the majority of environmental laws and regulations in the United States were enacted prior to the emergence of a mature science of remote sensing, there exists a degree of skepticism regarding the operational utility and reliability of remotely sensed data as an environmental compliance tool. This paper provides a review of the role of remote sensing in environmental compliance assessment and introduces a framework to guide the application of this technology based on the use of artificial neural networks. The customized neural networks developed in this study serve as a simplifying strategy to assist the process of compliance monitoring. Functioning as “intelligent” classifiers, the network models provide a spatial characterization of activities likely to cause damage; achieving mapping accuracies that ranged from 68 to 90% for the test case samples selected for investigation.

Conformance with the ISO 14001 standard—results of gap analyses at selected department of the army installations

Based on Department of Defense (DOD) policy guidance, the Department of the Army first adopted its Environmental Audit Program in 1985. Effective October 1991, the Army Environmental Audit Program was revised and redesignated as the Environmental Compliance Assessment System (ECAS) Program. The ECAS audits began to evaluate the installation's overall Environmental Program Management (EPM) and Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). The purpose of the EPM/EMS aspect of ECAS audits was to determine more systematic “root causes” for observed compliance problems. With the adoption of the ISO 14001 standard, the EPM/EMS portion of the ECAS protocol was revised to more closely mirror that standard. DOD has initiated a two-year pilot effort to evaluate the feasibility of ISO 14001 implementation at selected DOD installations. This DOD pilot program focuses both on implementation costs and on increased efficiency associated with more effective integration of installation-level EMS. In anticipation of a favorable endorsement of the ISO 14001 framework for installation-EMS, several Army installations have begun to perform their own gap analyses to determine their conformance to the various parts of the standard. This article describes the results of EMS audits (gap analyses) at nine Army installations. Major nonconformances observed at each installation and corrective actions are also discussed.