John Fernandes Limited (JFL) has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a permit to construct a hazardous materials storage facility at Plantation Fairfield, Mahaicony.
The closest residence will be 675 meters away from the facility, which in turn is 1,230 meters away from the seawall.
The project summary, which can be accessed on the EPA’s website, stated that the facility is to be strictly a storage and container transfer facility that will be used to store products and equipment, repackage products into tanks and filter products as it is being repackaged. It addition, it will contain office space for the warehouse team, quality control of the filtering operation, and transportation of inventory to supply vessels.
It was noted that imported finished products from the United States will be brought into Guyana and after receiving customs clearance, they will be transferred to the facility where most of the products will be filtered as they are transferred into internationally approved transportation containers through a closed-loop system to eliminate vapor emissions. Oilfield materials will also be stored in these containers at the proposed site until needed offshore.
According to the document, the facility will be 5,000 square metres, built to international standards, and will support the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, as dictated by the construction specifications overview.
It was revealed that the company plans to store asphaltene inhibitor, corrosion inhibitor, biocide, biocide filter, hydrate inhibitor, demulsifier, chlorine scavenger, defoamer, and hydrate inhibitor. Those products will be stored in ISO tanks constructed from 316 stainless steel with a capacity of 5,000 gallons per tank; plastic tanks constructed of HDPE with a capacity of 275 gallons per tank; and drums constructed from carbon steel, either lined or unlined, with a capacity of 55 gallons per drum.
The document also stated that the “Company complies with UN package performance standards to ensure that from a safety and regulatory adherence to laws and regulations.”
Further, it was disclosed that upon submission of the proposal, the EPA requested additional information specific to the containers, details about the containers and the type of chemicals to be stored therein, the capacity of the containers and the materials used to construct the containers.
Calls that were made to the EPA in an effort to shed more light on the project went unanswered. It is unclear whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will be carried out or if the project has already been approved.
