Etapa pós-licenciamento no estado de Minas Gerais: enfoque na Supram TMAP

Abstract

In Brazil, the 1981 Política Nacional de Meio Ambiente (PNMA) is an important landmark in the inclusion of these issues in public policies. This policy regards the environmental licensing instrument, which is formed by the Preliminary License (LP), Installation License (LI) and Operating License (LO), the latter being revalidated over the time of the enterprise’s operation activity. Due to requirement of LO renewal (follow-up stage), there is the possibility to follow the enterprise environmental performance. The Minas Gerais state was a pioneer in use of self-monitoring in the following-up, however, there are many gaps in this practice compromising the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. The new model adopted to figure out these problems is based on the Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Sustentável (Semad) regionalization and implementation of the Núcleo de Controle Ambiental (NUCAM), which acts directly at the EIA follow-up stage. The present study aimed to evaluate the application of environmental control and monitoring measures at licensed enterprises in post-decision , verifying aspects related to the regionalization of the environmental agency in Minas Gerais. In this way, twenty-one processes (eight slaughterhouses and thirteen dairy enterprises) were analyzed, all of them managed by the Superintendência Regional de Meio Ambiental Triângulo Mineiro e Alto Paranaíba (Supram TMAP) with the LO being granted between the years of 2008 and 2010. The data were categorized into Enterprise Technical Variables (VTEs), which evaluated the performance of the company, and Process Technical Variables (VTPs), which evaluated the environmental agency performance. The results from these two groups of variables were, when possible, compared with the results performed by the Supram Sul de Minas, in order to verify if the Semad regionalization caused differences in the technical work of the agency. Finally, interviews with Supram TMAP servers were carried out to verify the perspectives related to NUCAM. The results acquired by the VTEs analysis showed that in Supram TMAP the variables regarding to the formalization of the licensing process, such as the elaboration and submission of the Environmental Control Report and Environmental Control Plan, were classified as satisfactory. However, those variables directly related to the EIA follow-up stage, such as as conditions fulfillment and self-monitoring, this result was not the same. The VTPs also showed similar results, being the variables related to the decision period with better classification than those that verified the monitoring and inspection of the previous licensed enterprises. Comparing these results with those of the Sul de Minas regional, the scenario found was similar, being the post-licensing stage with poor performance for both compared VTEs and VTPs. However, points of divergence in performance were highlighted, revealing a lack of standardization procedures between Suprams, demonstrating that there is no equality in the handling of environmental licensing processes among the Semad regional agencies. Despite the problems faced, the Supram TMAP servers interviewed believe the agency's procedure contributes to the improvement of the environmental performance of the region's enterprises and that with NUCAM's performance the problems of the EIA follow-up stage will be mitigated. It is too early to say that these problems will be solved, but the NUCAM has already become an important starting point to enable the EIA to fulfill its role.