EPA still to assess impact of proposed Houston Chemical Plant – Director

Jul 15, 2019 News

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…says it must follow a process

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is yet to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the oilfield distribution facility proposed by Nalco Champions, a company which provides services for the oil industry.
This is according to Executive Director of the EPA, Dr. Vincent Adams. In an interview with Kaieteur News, Dr. Adams addressed a recent protest action by residents of Houston Gardens and other surrounding communities.
“EPA has not made a decision on whether we’re going to issue authorisation,” he said.
However, he added, the agency can’t immediately reject the proposal.
“We have to follow a process.”
Part of that process is ensuring that several other bodies must approve the proposal as well, he said. This includes the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and the City of Georgetown.

But more centrally for the EPA is the conduction of the EIA. During that process, Dr. Adams explained that the EPA would allow members of the public to make submission to the body, for consideration. A notice was published on July 3, 2019, which indicates that there is a 28-day period during which submissions can be made.
Several residents of Houston Gardens, and other surrounding communities, are protesting a proposal for the construction of an oilfield distribution facility at the John Fernandes Ltd. Inland Terminal at 4055 Industrial Site, Ruimveldt., for the oilfield chemical company.
During a press conference near the proposed location for the project, representatives from Houston Gardens, Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Rasville, Shirley Field Ridley, and D’Aguiar Park congregated to express their concerns, foremost of which is that the plant would be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of surrounding residents, especially in the case of a chemical leak.

On resident, Emmanuel Bevney said, “As a cattle farmer in the area and resident of Rasville, I would just like to say that it’s total trash. We don’t need it around here. Guyana is 83,000 square miles and they have a very large area where they can build something like that, so we don’t want that.”
“We’re humbly requesting the Environmental Protection Agency not to permit this facility here because it’s going to have some serious environmental impact on our lives,” said Candida Williams, a woman who also lives nearby.
According to businessman Charles Ceres, who is a resident of Houston Gardens, Nalco has signed an agreement with John Fernandes, which lists John Fernandes as a liability in the event of a spill. But he doubts whether John Fernandes would have the capacity to adequately compensate all the people who might be affected. Ceres said that in the case of an accident, the entire City of Georgetown would be affected.
Ceres went on to state, “What if there’s a spill on the road? I think that these people who are proposing this development should take it to the areas where they’re living and transport it through their neighbourhoods, instead of transporting it in neighbourhoods where their perception is that the people are not as important as they are.”
“What we’re seeing is a development surrounding within our community with which we have no idea of the impacts. And it’s an indictment on the Central Housing and Planning Authority and the Georgetown Mayor and City Council’s Engineering Department that they are permitting construction facilities in areas where they have no sense of what the impact of that construction is going to be.”
Attempts to confirm whether those bodies have granted approval to the proposal were unsuccessful.
Ceres further said, “People’s desire for money is fueling the absence of interest for the ordinary people in Guyana. I think this facility would be better cited in Subryanville, where the people who are owners of this inland port live.”
Ceres had claimed that the EPA neglected to respond to two letters it received earlier this month; one of them being written after the Nalco advertisement was published.
Dr. Adams dismissed that claim as misinformation. He said that the EPA received notice of the residents’ concerns, but that the letter did not list a return address.
Further, he said that contact had been made with Ceres, after it became known that he was one of the residents complaining, but that Ceres informed him that he was not looking for a response, only for the agency to take action.
In May, SBM Offshore N.V., a consortium of companies, which provides services to the oil industry, announced that it was contracted by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) for the next phase of the Liza project in Guyana. Under these contracts, SBM Offshore will construct, install and thereafter lease and operate for up to two years the Liza Unity FPSO.
In a notice, Nalco had indicated its intention to work with SBM Offshore/ExxonMobil.
The company, Nalco Champions, provides services to the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry, refineries and petrochemical operations.
In a notice from the EPA, the company’s intention to construct the plant was published. It has proposed that chemicals be transported from that terminal to the John Fernandes Water Street port for transfer to the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels offshore Guyana.
Hence, the facility is intended for filtration, storage and warehousing of oilfield chemicals, which are to be supplied to the FPSO vessels. It is estimated, if the proposal is approved, that 1,493,000 kgs of specialty and commodity chemicals would be imported and stored onsite, and that it will occupy 5,000 square metres with the intension of extending to 20,000 square metres as oil production increases.
Further, the company intends to construct office spaces and a laboratory; store mechanical equipment and parts; and transport chemicals.

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