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Calculation of environmental damage: methodology, example. Calculation of prevented environmental damage

Calculating the environmental damage from a certain production, just like payments or taxes for pollution, the reproduction of natural resources and many others is one of the most important economic mechanisms that ensure the protection of the environment.

In Russia, the implementation of this mechanism is faced with a large number of very diverse problems that concern both the legal and the practical sphere. A special problem in this case is that the calculation of environmental damage is not sufficiently provided for by legislation.

What are the disadvantages of the legislation?

There are several gaps in the current legislation:

  • The terms on which the calculation of environmental damage is determined are not sufficiently defined or even completely determined;
  • To date, the nature of environmental damage in the legal field remains unclear;
  • Some specific technological approaches to how environmental damage should be calculated have not been identified;
  • There are no methods by which such a calculation would be carried out.

What is it?

Despite the fact that the term "environmental damage" in itself is a generally accepted term in the modern scientific literature and is even used in certain regulatory and legal acts, Russian legislation does not have a definite notion of what it is and how environmental damage should be calculated. To date, in the scientific literature, an approach has become widespread, according to which environmental damage acts as a valuation of the environmental consequences caused by some actions to some natural resources and the environment.

At present, the laws use terms such as "harm to the environment", "calculation of environmental harm" and other similar. In accordance with the legislation, harm to the environment is any negative changes in the environment that result from its pollution and, consequently, degradation of natural ecological systems, as well as depletion of natural resources. In fact, this definition is dysfunctional for the reason that terms such as "depletion of natural resources" and "degradation of natural ecological systems" are missing in any laws. Thus, it is almost impossible to determine which method of calculation of environmental damage should be used correctly, and this is the main source of uncertainty.

How is the calculation carried out?

According to the Law on Environmental Protection, there are two main approaches to how to determine the extent of harm to nature:

  1. In accordance with the actual costs necessary for the complete restoration of the disturbed state of the environment, taking into account the losses incurred, including also the lost profit. In addition, the calculation can be carried out in accordance with the projects of remediation or any other restoration work.
  2. In accordance with fees or technologies for determining the extent of harm to the environment, which are identified and approved by the relevant executive authorities involved in public administration in the field of environmental protection.

The first point is completely in the sphere of the current civil law, including also the concept of "damages", which is present in the Civil Code. At the same time, the second direction is more relevant to the field of administrative law, since, first of all, it relies on the normative approach to calculating the harm caused. Federal law makes a distinction between what constitutes harm to the environment caused by violation of the law, as well as harm caused in the event of full compliance with the law.

How is damage compensated?

According to the law, harm to the environment, which was caused by a certain economic or any other activity, must be reimbursed in accordance with certain rates, as well as with the procedure for calculating environmental damage using legislation. If such a technique is not available, then the determination of payments should be calculated in accordance with the actual costs necessary to restore the disturbed state of the environment, taking into account the losses incurred and the lost profit.

However, this is what Art. 77, while Art. 78 proposes a slightly different procedure for how compensation should be paid in case of violation of legislation in the field of environmental protection. In this case, the calculation of the prevented environmental damage is carried out in accordance with the actual costs necessary to restore the disturbed state of the environment, taking into account the losses incurred and the lost profit, as well as in full compliance with the projects of all possible remediation and other restoration works. If they are not available, the payment is made according to the fees and methods for determining the size of the environment, which are determined by the executive authorities.

Thus, if harm is done in compliance with the law, only the primary taxation methods are used, while in violation of legislation, the calculation of environmental damage from air pollution or other actions is carried out in accordance with the actual costs necessary to restore the environment.

What methods are used?

In the majority of modern techniques, there is a normative approach to determining the extent of environmental damage, the use of which can ultimately lead to unreasonable or incorrect results. Despite the constant criticism of the approaches for calculating the prevented environmental damage or some other, all modern methods are also based solely on normative indicators.

One of the most relevant ways to calculate the extent of harm to the environment can be called the calculation of damages to the aquatic environment. It should be noted that, to date, the calculation of the concept of "environmental damage" and the principles of calculating environmental damage is determined in accordance with a number of specialized regulatory and methodological documents.

All modern techniques have different uses and are intended to calculate harm to various components of the environment. In this case, there are a number of complex calculation methods used in relation to certain objects. It should be noted that experts have repeatedly conducted studies of existing complex methods that determine the already applied or calculated environmental damage that caused it to be determined that today the calculation of environmental damage is insufficient on the part of the current legislation.

What is the lack of security?

It is worth considering some examples from the protection of water bodies:

  • The ecological harm caused in the absence of any violations of the current legislation is incorrectly calculated, since in this case under Art. 77 should be based on fees and methods;
  • Incorrectly calculated damage to aquatic ecosystems and biota;
  • The harm caused to water bodies as natural resources is incorrectly determined, because they are the source of water supply, recreation and fishing.

Based on the methodology currently used, the definition of harm is based on the compensation principle of assessment and further compensation of the amount of harm by the amount of costs necessary to determine the fact of causing harm, as well as further elimination of its consequences and causes. This includes the various costs necessary to develop the design estimates and the costs that need to be allocated to eliminate the infringement and further restore the state of a certain object to the indicators observed before the time of the detected violation.

However, the items listed in point 6 of the current methodology are in fact completely absent in the calculation formulas. The basis of this methodology is the standard normative assessment approach, which ultimately leads to results that have no connection with the real environmental consequences present in ecosystems, as well as their individual components and all sorts of natural resources.

Incorrect cost calculation

The costs necessary to eliminate the causes of damage are unjustifiably included in the composition of harm, because they have nothing to do with the valuation of the environmental consequences caused. In particular, it is worth noting several examples and techniques.

Harm due to the discharge of harmful substances

In this case, the calculation is carried out in accordance with the following characteristics:

  • The mass of pollutants released from the enterprise;
  • Intensity of exposure of these substances to a specific object;
  • A class of danger of polluting substances in the event that their concentration is more than 10 times greater in comparison with the background.

After that, the calculation of environmental damage from environmental pollution is already carried out on the basis of the state in which the object is located, what type it is and how valuable it is, and also in accordance with some additional parameters, such as seasonality, etc.

In this case, the value of a certain object is determined by the presence in it of any rare plants, natural healing resources or belonging to objects subject to special protection.

Damage due to accidents

Quite often there are situations when, due to a certain accident at the enterprises, the environment is strongly polluted with various inorganic and organic substances, including petroleum products, pesticides and many others, so that they can even enter the sewage or drainage waters.

In this case, the methods of calculating environmental damage provide for its determination in accordance with the mass of the substance ejected from the accident, as well as the time during which no measures have been taken to eliminate the pollution that has arisen. Again, the methodology provides for an additional calculation in accordance with the state of the object that suffered damage, its type and value, as well as a number of additional factors.

Harm caused by discharge of domestic wastewater from various ships

The calculation procedure for prevented environmental damage or damage already caused provides for the definition of damage in accordance with the volume of storage capacity required for the collection of domestic water or the category of the vessel, the number of people staying on it during this incident, as well as the time of the vessel's continuous stay out of place Parking. Additional factors are exactly the same as in the previous cases.

Damage due to pollution with waste products of consumption and production in the form of garbage

The area of the object that was contaminated with garbage is determined. If this object is a reservoir, then in this case the area of the water area, as well as the bottom and the coastal strips of the object contaminated with these wastes is determined. Otherwise, the parameters are the same: the state of the object after causing damage to it, seasonality, type and value of the given object, but to them the degree of contamination of this object with garbage or any other waste is added.

Harm due to dumping or burial of consumption and production waste

Calculation of environmental damage, an example of which we are considering at the moment, is carried out in accordance with the mass of abandoned large-sized waste of consumption and production. In addition, damage is calculated in accordance with the state of the object due to damage to it, as well as its value and type.

Damage due to various works associated with changing the landscape

Calculations of environmental damage during production in this case are carried out due to contamination with suspended substances, the release of which is the result of mining or exploration of minerals, undertaking deep or any other work related to changing the landscape, shores, and violation of the conditions for using this territory without Availability of appropriate permits for this. Also the calculation is carried out in the event that as a result of the accident any important structures were destroyed.

If the situation occurs on a water body, in this case the mass of substances is determined in accordance with the average length, depth and width of their distribution in the water area, as well as the mean and background concentrations. Additional factors: the state of the object after pollution, the type and value of this object, the presence of high water or high water, seasonality.

Harm due to partial or complete depletion of a natural source

Such a calculation is carried out in the event that the harm caused is a consequence of any violation of the conditions for using this natural resource or is carried out in the absence of appropriate documents permitting the use of these resources. Considering what costs are included in the calculation of environmental damage, it is possible to allocate the amount of resources needed to restore the source and prevent its complete depletion. For example, if it is a water source, then in this case a double volume is required from the water that was collected.

It also takes into account the fee rate, which depends directly on the source's ownership of a particular territory. Among other things, the calculation indicates the state of the object due to pollution, the type of the object, and also whether it is surface or underground.

Harm from mining operations

Again, the calculation is carried out if the damage is caused in the mining process if the conditions of the current legislation are violated regarding the use of this source of resources or if there is no necessary documentation to allow its use. In this case, the damage is determined in accordance with the mass of mineral extraction, the type and value of the object, as well as its state due to this pollution. The calculation of prevented environmental damage is also conducted, the example of which we are considering.

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