Despite all debates in the parliament between the ruling AK Party and the opposition parties, the new environmental assessment regulation has been published in the Official Gazette dated November 25, 2014 and numbered 29186 (“Regulation”).
The Regulation provides that railroad projects which do not exceed 100 kilometers in length will be exempt from environmental assessment procedures.
According to the Regulation, dredging projects which are conducted to dredge materials in excess of 3.000.000 m3 will also be exempt from environmental assessment procedures.
Before the Regulation came into force, the environmental assessment procedures for wind power plants were determined based on the number of turbines in a wind power plant rather than their production capacity. However, the Regulation now stipulates that the environmental assessment procedures of wind power plants shall be determined according to their production capacity. In other words, wind power plants with a production capacity of 1-50 MW’s shall be included under Schedule 2 (i.e. schedule indicating activities which will be reviewed by the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning (“Ministry”) whereas wind power plants with a production capacity exceeding 50 MW shall be included under Schedule 1 of the Regulation (i.e. schedule indicating activities which shall be subject to environmental assessment).
Apart from these, there are certain activities which have now been moved from Schedule 1 of the Regulation to Schedule 2.
Prior to the Regulation, mass housing projects with 2,000 or more houses were subject to environmental assessment. However, with the Regulation, mass housing projects have been removed from Schedule 1 of the Regulation. On the other hand, Schedule 2 previously indicated that mass housing projects with 200 or more houses shall be subject to the review of the Ministry. However, with the Regulation, this number has now been increased to 500.
The Regulation also introduces some changes with respect to environmental assessments of hydroelectric power plants. In this respect, hydroelectric power plants with a production capacity of 25 MW or more were listed under Schedule 1 whereas hydroelectric power plants with a production capacity between 1 and 25 MW were listed under Schedule 2. The Regulation has amended these numbers and now hydroelectric power plants with a production capacity of 10 MW or more are listed under Schedule 1 and those with a production capacity of 1-10 MW are listed under Schedule 2.
Previously, golf facilities (covering an area up to 50 hectares) and shopping malls (covering an area of 50.000 m2 or more) were listed under Schedule 1 whereas now these items are listed under Schedule 2 as a result of the Regulation.
Pursuant to the Regulation, disassembly of industrial and energy facilities (e.g. nuclear power plants, thermal power plants, factories and etc.) shall no longer be listed under Schedule 2 so that such activities will be exempted from environmental assessment.