Avaliação da qualidade dos estudos ambientais de pequenas centrais hidrelétricas na bacia hidrográfica do Rio Grande, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Activities which modify the environment around it and/or use the natural resources must be the target of an environmental licensing, legally predicted in the Law no 6,938/1981 (Brasil, 1981). During this process, it is necessary that the present environmental organ define the Environmental Study necessary to the licensing and approve its content, just as the interested entrepreneur delivers it. However, the quality of these studies not always befits with the predicted, presenting technical and legal deficiencies. The objective in this work was to analyze these deficiencies of Environmental Studies belonging to 20 small hydroelectric power (SHP), located in the Rio Grande Watershed, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in addition to grouping them according to the similarities between them. The data achievement followed the methodology adapted by Zanzini (2001), meeting legal and environmental indicators by means of numeric indexes. The results, derived from the technical analyses and from the groupings, demonstrated fragilities regarding the predicted legal fulfilment and, also, in the environmental technique quality.