Title: Information and EIA follow-up for the hydropower plants in Brazil The environmental impact assessment (EIA)

is a tool for managing the changes that the human actions may affect the environment and the society. It is associated with public policies (SNCHEZ, 2006) and it is characterized as a tool to assist government decision making with regard to projects involving significant environmental changes (CANTER, 1996). In general, the environmental impact assessment is an administrative process linked to the government and aims to prevent regulate and control possible changes in the environmental and social levels - caused by projects (enterprises) public or private. Despite the primary role of the environmental impact assessment is to assist the decision making, Snchez (2006) and Glasson et al. (2005) establish other important functions of the EIA, such as contributions to the planning and projects development less environmentally impactful, as an instrument of sustainable development, environmental management and social negotiation. The environmental impact assessment has already been implemented in many countries and governments (GLASSON, et al. 2005) and it started in Brazil in the 1980s. Nowadays it can be implemented and managed by the federal, state, and local government, and the law defines as an organized process in three stages, with the previous license (LP) - which examines the alternatives of location and technology, considering the social and environmental viability; the installation license (LI) - the time in which it details the construction process and mitigation measures and compensation control; and finally, the operating license (LO) - that allows the enterprise to start its operation, still has this license expiration date and the entrepreneur should continue its programs to control and mitigate the impacts along the life (Brazilian federal law n.6938/191). But recently it has been observed in some states or processes the implementation of closure licenses of the undertaking. After nearly four decades of the emergence of EIA in the USA, many authors have studied, analyzed and discussed the effectiveness of the EIA process in the postapproval stage of the Environmental Impact Study analyzing the effective implementation of mitigation and compensation measures recommended in the EIA (MUNN , 2005; PRADO FILHO; SOUZA, 2004; GALLARDO; SNCHEZ, 2004; DIAS, 2001). This theme has been studied in several countries where the procedures for Environmental Impact Assessment also predict the environmental impact study, as in Canada (NOBLE; STOREY, 2005), Australia (MORRISON-SAURDERS; BAILEY, 1999; AHAMMED; NIXON, 2006), Britain (WATHERN; YOUNG, 1987) or even in smaller countries such as Mauritius (RAMJEAWON; BEEDASSY, 2004). In this process it is important to consider that the EIA should not only be a tool to allow businesses, but can, and should be an environmental management tool to be developed more widely, bringing answers not only to licensing institutions (governments) but also for society. In Brazil, the main energy source is the hydropower that represents approximately 70% of the electricity produced in the country (ANEEL, 2010); according to this characteristic, large and small reservoirs were formed in the last 50 years, resulting in many social and environmental impacts. And, not coincidentally, this was the infrastructure sector that emerged the requirement of law procedures for

monitoring programs in different environmental components. As time goes by, these procedures took the form of documentation and the necessary requirements for obtaining an Installation License, generating the possibility to produce different data for different areas of many physical (eg, erosion, siltation, flow studies, quality water), biology (diversity of flora and fauna and associated impacts) and socioeconomic (studies of economic, social and urban infrastructure among others) Therefore currently in Brazil, there are several procedures regarding the licensing process, that enhance the production of data from different nature, allowing them to be used in the decisionmaking stage. This study analyzed data produced in Corumb River basin in central-western Brazil (Figure 1), where three hydropower plants are installed. The management of these enterprises are conducted by different companies and licensing process occurs at the federal agency (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renovveis - IBAMA) and state agency (Secretaria do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hdricos do estado de Gois - SEMARH-GO). The checking of the documentary process was done in the companies and in the state environmental agency, also structured questionnaires and interviews were applied to the managers as the senior management of companies, such as technical managers who deal daily with the work of the environmental impacts of companies and the management of public institutions.

Figure 1. Location Corumb river basin and water collection points for the different programs for monitoring water quality. The study was focused on producing data and information of the programs of water quality; once these data are important in the decision making of the company,

because it is important to maintain the quality level suitable for multiple uses, for example: public supply, recreation, fishing, boating, and to power generation. In addition, it can be useful in the licensing process for hydropower plants in cascade along a river, and it can also be used to manage the society about the status of water quality along the river, benefiting all local and regional population. The documental analysis also demonstrated some failures in the process as gaps between the planning of monitoring programs and enforcement, the need of legal intervention for their execution. But, on the other hand, we observed three good possibilities: a) that the sites were relatively well distributed throughout the river; b) there are 62 parameters analyzed, and 15 parameters (physical-chemical and bacteriological) important to assess the quality of water of the river are common indicating the possibility of having data for an analysis for the whole river, and c) the maximum recorded frequency was quarterly, allowing seasonal analysis. Moreover, even with flaws, documented procedures for equipment calibration and certification of the analysis were cited in all studies. On the other hand, the implementation of the interviews with the directors and managers, showed that everybody approved the establishment of environmental monitoring programs, in the case of water quality, that are important, and the quality of studies has improved as time goes by. But in fact, it wasnt observed the management of such data so that they become relevant in the information management process of the river basin. It was observed that within companies such data are collected only in the interest of obtaining the environmental license or close up to see if the parameters are analyzed within the limits imposed by law. Regarding the public organizations the management of the licensing process, is sometimes done on individual bases and discontinued and, highly dependent on the analyst, who is assigned for specific assessments; there are no databases established, that allow different analysts, departments or institutions to access the data to be used as a whole, enhancing and facilitating the decision-making process. It is relevant to mention, that all those interviewed, including senior managers and decision makers, believe that the systematization and dissemination of data are important. Smith (1989 apud CANTER, 1996) indicates that the post approval follow-up monitoring is especially important when there are no good techniques for impact prediction and mitigation methods consolidated. In Brazil, for its unique characteristics, with high diversity, complex and fragile ecosystems, low historical survey of primary data relating to different themes, complex river system and social/cultural diversity, exacerbates doubts about the accuracy of prediction of impacts and efficiency of proposed mitigation measures during the Environmental Impact Assessment. In this perspective, it was evaluated the documents and interviews conducted. Overall, the study showed that the Monitoring Programs in the follow-up are considered essential in the process of environmental licensing and characterized as a major instrument of analysis of the impacts caused by new hydropower projects, is fundamental to the production of basic data, and constitutes a reference for making new decisions, to align new initiatives to mitigate and manage the impacts.

On the other hand, if this is a step of great importance, considering that its effects are indeed obtained, it would be important that enforcement actions were established (CANTER, 1996), which have not been observed in the documentation reviewed and from the interviews. So, the importance of implementation of monitoring programs still have a "theoretical" value, since they are not established for planning and managing actions that promote their implementation. It is observed frequently, that the activities of monitoring by the licensing are neglected. In order to ensure the quality for data, it is important to clearly define the monitoring that we have as a goal and the steps necessary for a successful program planning, such as setting goals, defining the sites to be monitored, to ensure that the data collected can be used in the future, promoting the organization and data storage, selecting good variables for analysis, allowing interpretation focused on goals, collect preliminary data to get good benchmarks, and perform good analysis and data presentation (AHMMED and NIXON , 2006; Canter, 1996). It is possible to have many problems in the analysis of monitoring data, such as lack of quality control program, mainly to previous data, difficulty in integrating data from different sources of information and lack of information for data interpretation (AHMMED AND NIXON, 2006; CANTER, 1996). All these problems can be observed, at least in part, on documentary analysis and interviews for the case of river basin Corumb. During the follow-up process in Brazil, it is observed that data collection occurs and these need to be analyzed, interpreted and assessed, and the cost for the implementation of monitoring programs has significant value for entrepreneurs. In view of the Brazilian case study, it is deemed that there is potential for using these data in order to form a regional database, allowing management more broadly, not only for environmental licensing, but for the management of regional committees and the National Water Agency (Agncia Nacional de guas - ANA). Thus, an information system to be deployed should be considered in an integrated manner with such institutions, and most important, it can be used by researchers and the society as a whole. . In view of the possibility of a regional management, Morrison-Saunders and Baley (1999) consider that the EIA process can also be useful and adapted to the broader environmental management, and Culhane (1993 apud BALEY; MORRISONSAUNDERS, 1999) considered that EIA could also aim to promote the management to guide the implementation of subsequent projects. Therefore, the promotion of regional management positions is favorable not only within the EIA system in Brazil, but mainly from other authors who study and analyze other EIA systems.
References

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