National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998)

Regulations in Terms of Chapter 5 of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998

Chapter 3 : Applications for Environmental Authorisations

Part 2 : Applications subject to basic assessment

25. Consideration of applications
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1)A competent authority must within 30 days of acknowledging receipt of an application in terms of regulation 14(2)(a), consider the application and the basic assessment report.

 

2)If  the competent authority is unable to decide the application on the basic assessment report alone, the competent authority must request the EAP managing the application—
a)to submit such additional information as the competent authority may require;
b)to submit a report on any specialist study or specialised process as the competent authority may require in relation to any aspect of the proposed activity;
c)to suggest, consider or comment on feasible and reasonable alternatives; or
d)to subject the application to scoping and environmental impact assessment.

 

3)The competent authority may reject the basic assessment report if—
a)it does not comply with regulation 23 in a material respect; or
b)it is based on an insufficient public participation process.

 

4)
a)A basic assessment report that has been rejected in terms of subregulation (3), may be amended and resubmitted by the EAP to the competent authority.
b)Comments that are made by interested and affected parties in respect of an amended basic assessment report must be attached to the report, but the EAP need not make further changes to the report in response to such comments.

 

5)On receipt of any information, reports, suggestions or comments requested in terms of subregulation (2)(a), (b) or (c) or any amended basic assessment report submitted in terms of subregulation (4), as the case may be, the competent authority must reconsider the application.

 

6)If the competent authority requests in terms of subregulation (2) (d) that the application be subjected to scoping, the application must be proceeded with in accordance with regulations 30,31,32,33,34,35 and 36.