A revised environmental impact assessment of the island’s second airport has been submitted to the Ministry of Environment, and its summary has been open to the public.
The assessment includes environmental impacts that the development of the 2nd airport imposes on the environment. In the report, the transport ministry concludes that the creation of the airport would not cause serious impacts.
Meanwhile, opposing members question the quality of the investigation.
Todd Thacker reports.

Report

This is the summary report for a supplementary environmental impact assessment on the creation of the island’s new airport, submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to the Ministry of Environment. It was made public by relevant offices of the National Assembly.
The assessment includes aircraft noise, bird strikes, wildlife and geological impacts, the latter being the permeable geologic structures called (숨골) Sumgol which allow groundwater to flow through the area.

The Transport Ministry concluded that possible bird strikes would not lead to serious damage to aircraft. It said noise can be minimized if an aircraft takes off and lands toward the south, and there would be little direct impact on area wildlife.
It also recommended building an artificial reservoir to hold groundwater as an estimated 160 (숨골) Sumgol have to be buried at the airport site.
Environmental Impact Assessment of New Airport



In short, the Transport Ministry concluded that the creation of the airport would not have a serious impact on the environment and expected any negative impacts to be manageable.


In response to the report, the Environment Ministry is reviewing it by category.
Once this is complete, the ministry will forward the results of its review to the Transport Ministry. This will fall into one of three outcomes: agreement, conditional agreement, or non-agreement.


Meanwhile, groups which oppose the creation of the new airport have asked the Ministry of Environment to reject the report, arguing that its findings are indicative of a substandard impact assessment.


For now, all eyes are on the Ministry of Environment and whether it will accept, amend, or reject the Transport Ministry’s environmental assessment report for Jeju’s second airport.
Todd Thacker, KCTV