Seeing as we have all been expecting some movement on the approval of the ESD this week, I have been meaning to dig back to a post I made in June last year about timelines for the EPA approvals process so that I could update it with the progress that we have made to date.
Thought it might be interesting to see where the projected final approval date ends up in relation to VRX expectations for commencement of production by end of year
-
VRX prepares scoping document = ??? (Up to VRX) Finished- EPA Review ESD = ~ 5 weeks Finished
- EPA seeks advice on ESD = ??? (Up to authorities, only once) Finished
- VRX makes changes based on advice = ??? (Up to VRX) Finished
- EPA approves ESD after receiving advice = 4 weeks Let's assume for the sake of this exercise that this happened this week
- EPA notifies VRX of approval = 1 week
- VRX prepares draft Enviro Review Document = ??? (Up to VRX)
- EPA reviews draft ERD = 6 weeks
- EPA authorises public release of ERD = 2 weeks
- Public review of ERD = 4 weeks
- EPA provides summary of submissions = 3 weeks
- VRX provides response to submissions = ??? (Up to VRX)
- EPA reviews response to submissions = 4 weeks
- EPA prepares draft assessment report = 6 weeks
- EPA seek comment on conditions = 1 week (optional)
- EPA finalise report and issue to minister = max 6 weeks
- Minister publishes assessment report = 3 days
- Minister makes decision = ??? (Poorly explained in the manual)
- Appeals period = 2 weeks
So say 8 weeks to prepare the ERD, plus 4 weeks for responding to public comments... (All other timeframes are from the EPA manual)
Adds up to 47 weeks (around 11 months)
Which would put the expected EPA approval decision date as Feb 2023. Probably not what we were all hoping for :/
Someone else want to check the logic and math to see if I haven't made a mistake somewhere?
