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Title

Consultant: Responsible for producing an Environmental Monitoring Plans, conducting Environmental Monitoring Training and preparing Terms of Reference for an industry inventory/intervention document (i.e. Green Book for Montenegro).

Posted
Reference   (Please mention Stopdodo/Environment Jobs in your application)
Sectors
Location Montenegro - Europe
Type Temporary / Contract / Seasonal
Status Full Time
Level Senior Level
Deadline 31/12/2009
Company Name United Nations Development Program
Contact Name Human Resources
Website Further Details / Applications
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Directory Entry : UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. For environmental jobs with UNDP visit their website. Or for more environmental jobs search environmentjobs.com
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Description

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and UN ATSCR 1244 Kosovo developed a regional environmental Programme in locations in the mentioned Western Balkans countries/territories suffering from the legacy of polluting industries and requiring industrial renewal, environmental clean-up and new economic initiative.

The aim/objective of the 3-year $15 million Western Balkans Environmental Hot Spots Programme – www.westernbalkansenvironment.net - involving 6 countries/territories and nine environmental hot spots locations is threefold:

  • To enhance regional cooperation in Western Balkans (by showing value added and influencing the way people perceive and act in the regional cooperation),
  • To improve living conditions in communities around targeted environmental hot spots through progress in clean-up/remediation activities in selected locations (making progress and communicating it effectively to stakeholders),
  • To ensure control of existing pollution and prevent similar environmental problems happening in the future through building up knowledge and capacity in the local communities and at the national level.

Most of the funding within this program is dedicated in the physical works needed to mitigate the environmental and human health impacts resulting directly and indirectly from industrial and mining activities. Environmental monitoring is a critical component in evaluating such works.

The establishment of a water and/or air pollution monitoring regime and system – a fundamental responsibility of the hotspot owner is a common requirement for all pilot or demonstration projects within the program, albeit one that is to be elaborated in a project specific manner for each site. In the absence of a (‘minimal’) water and/or air monitoring regime and system, it would not be possible to assess the effectiveness of the concerned clean-up activity.

Providing opportunities to improve environmental monitoring skill sets across the involved countries/territories and program sites is not only important in allowing the physical works undertaken  to mitigate the problem to be assessed, but is also important component that can be used for institutional strengthening and capacity building Strengthen capacity for improving environmental management abilities within the region.

Effective environmental monitoring is essential to understanding, managing, and protecting environmental and human health in Montenegro. Monitoring is a key factor to improving the quality of the decision-making that will maintain sustainable ecosystems, protect human health, and support a healthy economy. Environmental monitoring is a tool used to describe the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well as in many circumstances in which human activities carry a risk of harmful effects on the natural environment. It is commonly included as a requirement in laws and regulations, first, for compliance assessment, and second, for the environmental reporting of industrial emissions.

To determine the risk the measurement is usually directed toward those elements likely to exceed the accepted limit values and which therefore represent the main risk to human and environmental health. The data produced after the lab analysis has to be compared against the relevant limit values for each media and against relevant legal framework (for Europe the EU Directives), or in other relevant standards (WHO or other). In addition to limit values, there are also warning thresholds and margin of tolerance which should trigger further investigations.

Montenegro national component:

Historically mining operations in the area of Mojkovac have been undertaken for many centuries with extraction of silver having occurred since ca. 1270. However intensive mining operations were limited to the period from 1976 to 1991 at the Lead and Zinc Mine of ‘Brskovo’ situated just above the town of Mojkovac itself. As a result of these past operations, with management decisions focused on direct investments toward other priorities, on industrialization without taking adequate environmental safeguards, not clearly allocated and implemented environmental management responsibilities and the lack of a formal mine closure process led to creation of an environmental hot spot.

Taking in consideration that the area in which these mining activities took place is situated between two national parks (Biogradsko Lake and Durmitor) and the UNESCO protected River Tara the identified problems the mining activities have international and cross border consequences. 

The first problem concerns the tailing mine impoundment (TMI) formed in the area between right river bank of Tara and western side of urban zones of Mojkovac which received mine process wastes from the mineral processing plant on the towns outskirts. The TMI occupies an area of 19 ha and contains approximately 2 million m3 of disposed tailing waste materials from an estimated total of 2.600.000 t of tailings produced from Brskovo mine ore.

The Project to remediate the TMI, named Remediation and recultivatioin of the Mojkovac lead and zinc tailings mine impoundment, was prepared by the faculty of Civil Engineering Podgorica and associated institutions in 2004. Project implementation started in 2005 and UNDP CO Montenegro is supporting this project through the UNDP regional “Western Balkans Environmental Programme” financed by the Netherlands government. This project has now entered its final phase and it is planned that final works will take place by the end of 2010. The value of this project exceeds 10 000 000,00 € and represents significant financial and technical effort for Montenegro and Mojkovac Municipality.

Objective of the Assignment: The overall objective of this assignment is to develop a standardised environmental monitoring plan for the Mojkovac rehabilitation site in concert with the responsible authorities, to train staff in accordance with best practice for environmental monitoring relevant to the regulatory requirements and to over site the environmental monitoring in accordance with the plan to ensure quality control and assurance is adhered to. In addition to this is a task to produce ToRs for identifying and categorising other “hotspot: sites to link this project with future interventions.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective is therefore broken into 3 concrete activities which the consultant will carry out during a period of approximately 25 working days for this assignment.

These are as follows:

  • Prepare and supervise the Environmental Monitoring Plan for the Mojkovac Rehabilitation Site to be used both as the baseline on completion of works and as a performance indicator for containment of contaminants within the TMI;
  • Prepare and implement capacity building activities (i.e. monitoring training, assessment of results, field sampling etc) for the relevant institutional staff tasked with ongoing monitoring of the Mojkovac Rehabilitation Site and surrounding Brskovo mine complex and other sites in Montenegro;
  • Prepare terms of reference for and industry/brown field site inventory and intervention document to allow collection and categorisation of sites and activities impacting on environmental and human health in Montenegro.

Activity 1.

Preparation of Environmental Monitoring Plan for the Mojkovac Rehabilitation Site and surrounding areas relating to the Brskovo mining complex in Mojkovac
The engaged consultant will be responsible for designing environmental monitoring plan, required as part of remediation and recultivatioin of the TMI for the project in Mojkovac.
This will include the following;

  • Review of the existing environmental monitoring results/reports and monitoring locations that currently exist for the Mojkovac TMI and Brskovo Mine complex and surrounding area with a primary focus on the TMI;
  • Identify the key water quality parameters required for effective environmental monitoring with specific reference on data compatibility at the national and international level and useful for as performance monitoring the TMI containment;
  • Agree with the experts on a core set of widely useful key physical, chemical, and biological indicators that would support local and national aggregations of comparable information for assessments;
  • Develop and supervise the integration of the first round of environmental monitoring program with the capacity building activities to be undertaken in Activity 2.

Activity 2.

This is to be delivered in the form of lectures, presentations and interactive activities that integrates the previous activity (i.e. Development of the environmental monitoring plan) with the capacity building/training activities. The approach should build on from the general principles and approaches of environmental monitoring and field surveillance, and then move to monitoring focus (biological, chemical, etc), principle monitoring techniques for media (air, water, soils, biological etc), principle standards (national/international) followed by application in the field. This will include but not be limited to;

  • Organise training programme for approximately 7 institutional staff on environmental monitoring and field surveillance;
  • Present the most frequently used environmental monitoring methods and methodologies.
  • Present the most frequently used environmental monitoring equipment and sampling methods and methodologies with the related criteria.
  • Present the laboratory and other needs for conducting environmental water monitoring with good practice and in accordance with standardised international quality assurance and quality control approaches.
  • If applicable, support field exercise on one or more location (environmental monitoring in form and on location selected in cooperation with Agency for Environmental Protection relevant representatives).
  • Agree with UNDP and project team on the agenda of the training.
  • Prepare the training report in English language; the content of the report will be agreed on together with UNDP and project team.

The presentation during the training session must refer to (please note that this list is indicative):

  • overview of the relevant EU legislation in relation to environmental monitoring (ie such Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC), Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC), Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC), Directive on protection of groundwater against pollution and best practices (80/68/EEC), Directive 2008/105/EC on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy etc;
  • relevant guidelines, standards, laws and regulations on environmental monitoring and field surveillance;
  • relevant WHO standards and documents on environmental monitoring;

Activity 3.

The engaged consultant would be  responsible for preparation of Terms of Reference for creation of document called Green Book for Montenegro to serve as an integrated document containing a comprehensive list of industry/brown field sites, categorized by type/risk/size; and including description of the identified environmental interventions.

This document should be aligned with IPPC, EU directives and all other relevant frameworks/legislation, and would include:

  • An inventory of current polluters and existing hot spots;
  • Methodology for categorization of polluters;
  • Proposal for best value remediation measures; and
  • Standards for issuing an integrated licence to current and future investors.  

Terms of Reference should contain detailed instruction and guidelines for the preparation of Green Book, taking in consideration relevant legislation, best practice and relevant experience in this area and inputs from relevant stakeholders. During preparation of Terms of Reference it is expected from selected consultant to prepare estimation of costs needed for preparation of Green Book.

 

Competencies

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
  • Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
  • Remains calm, in control and good humoured even under pressure
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
  • Perform any other duty as may be assigned by the Project Manager

 

Required Skills and Experience

  • University degree in an environmental, engineering or a science field relevant to environmental monitoring,
  • site assessment and training in relation to industrial, mining  and contaminated sites, PhD would be an asset;
  • A minimum 10 years of relevant working experience in the field of environmental protection, environmental management or other relevant field associated with Environmental Monitoring, field surveillance, site assessment;
  • Excellent experience/knowledge  in the field application of environmental monitoring and field surveillance for a range of industrial, mining and contaminated sites and purposes (reconnaissance, regulatory and performance);
  • Excellent understanding of the principles, tools, techniques required to monitor industrial, mining and contaminates sites and expertise in their application to human and environmental health;
  • Extensive experience in the development and presentation of environmental monitoring training packages through workshops, lectures, written materials, study tours etc.;
  • Extensive experience in undertaking environmental monitoring and site assessment using a range of tools and approaches and monitoring a variety of media;
  • Familiarity with International and European Environmental Protection legislation and standards and their implementation in all participating countries/territories. 
  • Good writing skills, clear and persuasive and experienced to prepare valuable  materials that will serve as points of reference;
  • Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English.

Note: The translation facilities, the venue and other logistic issues will be the responsibility of the project team and not of the consultant. However, close cooperation with the project team is highly recommended.

Application Process

Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications to UNDP Office in Podgorica by e-mail to consultancy.me@undp.org by Wednesday 30th December 2009, CoB.
 
The application should contain:

The short-listed candidates only would be requested to submit a letter of interest including a price quotation indicating the lump sum (in USD) requested for the work and travel envisaged in the section "Duties and Responsibilities".

UNDP is an equal opportunity employer. 

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