ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 615--SPRING 2007

Dr. Kelly Kindscher, 2:00-5:00 pm., Friday, in 4002 Wescoe

Office: 135A Higuchi Hall, West Campus, Phone: 864-1529; Office Hours, by appointment

Email (the best way to reach me):  Kindscher@ku.edu

Teaching Assistant: Andy Hilburn, Email:  amhilburn@yahoo.com; 

Phone: 601-466-1718; office hours: noon—2 pm Fri.; 3-4 pm Thurs. @ EVRN office, Snow Hall 

Date                Topic                                                   ­­­­­            ­­­­­          

January 19        Introduction, Course Objectives, What is Environmental Assessment?  

South Lawrence Trafficway as a case study

January 26        The EIS Process and Environmental Laws, NEPA, Endangered Species Act

Febr. 2             Environmental Documents and CEQ Regulations, Elements of Environmental

Assessment and Methodologies                                                                        Chapter 1 in text*

Febr. 9             Potential Impacts to Land; Case Study:  Flint Hills and Wind Energy    Chapter 2

Febr. 16           Risk Assessment; Potential Impacts to Water and Air; Case Study:  New         

Coal-fired Plants in Kansas                                                                       Chapter 3

Febr. 23           Public Participation, Sustainability Projects at KU, & Exam Review Chapter 4

March 2           Sustainability groups meet (5 minutes) Black-footed ferrets re-introduction

to W. Kansas First Exam

March 9           Economic Issues in EIA and Case study:  Yellowstone—Wolves and Bison;

Chevron Energy Solutions—Chris and Laci; Sustainability groups meet  Chapter 5

March 16         Energy and Environmental Assessment, Case Study by Andy Hilburn: Air Quality

and Mobile, AL Chapter 6

March 23         Spring Break

March 30         Presentation of group Sustainability Project                       

Jeff Severin--Sustainability Center; Also Legal Aspects of Env. Impact Assessment  Chapter 7 

April 6              Wetland Assessment & Mitigation, Case Study:  Wild Harvest of  Echinacea—

an important botanical medicine and Sustainability groups meet Chapter 8

April 13            Field Trip to West Campus (Use bus and meet at West campus Park and Ride,            

west end, first stop, closest to woods) Chapter 9

April 20            Impacts on Cultural Resources, Panel Discussion of Environmental Consultants:

(Frank Norman, Carol Kuhn, Todd Aschenbach) and Exam Review; Sustainability groups meet

April 27            Second Exam,  International Perspectives

on Environmental Assessment  

May 4              Sustainability Projects Final Presentation (20 minutes each)

May 10            Sustainability Project Written Report and Journal Entries Due.

 

Text: *Environmental Impact Assessment : Cutting Edge for the 21st Century -- by Alan Gilpin;

Blackboard:  Notes will be posted on Blackboard for lecture materials.

Attendance: Attendance will be taken and is a part of your grade.  Since we meet once a week, your attendance is very important. 

 

 

Quizzes:  There will be five during the semester (10 points each).  There will likely be a quiz on March 16.  They will be on either the reading materials or on posted notes related to the lecture.

 

Examinations: There will be two in-class examinations and no final examination in the course.  A written medical excuse will be required to miss any of the examinations. The questions on the exams will be based on the material presented in the lectures, and will be a mix of short answer and essay questions. 

 

Sustainability Project:  See handouts on this; dates for meetings and due dates are on the syllabus above.

 

Grading:                     First exam                                            100 points

Second Exam                                       100 points

Attendance                                             50 points

Quizzes                                                  50 points

Sustainability Project (due May 10)       100 points (25 points journal;

75 points final report)

Total                            400 points

 

Philosophy of this course, and expected academic conduct: This course presents an overview of the process and requirements of the Impact Assessment process mandated from both the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and subsequent federal and state laws that require consideration of Environmental Impact Assessment and also in the international arena.  The material will be presented to cover the wide view of the field and also to offer meaningful examples.  It is the intent of the instructors to help you to learn (in contrast to just having you memorize and regurgitate information).  Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this course and you might want to look at the plagiarism-related handouts form the University of Toronto College Workshop, one of the best writing and grammar sites on the web  http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html  and http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/paraphrase.html

Student help: Any student in this course who has a disability that may prevent them from fully demonstrating their abilities should contact me personally as soon as possible so we can discuss accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and to facilitate the educational opportunity.  You can also help make this a better class by be respectful of others by not talking to other students during class and turning off your cell phone.