Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GO-Invest Waynewright Owen Verwey is seeking environmental authorisation to construct and operate a non-hazardous material storage facility to store imported equipment for offshore oil and gas operations.
The facility will be located at Block W1, Plantation Houston, in Georgetown.
In a notice on Sunday in the Guyana Chronicle, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed that it has screened the application submitted by Verwey and has determined that the proposed project will not significantly affect the environment and is, therefore, exempt from the requirement of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
The EPA said that potential impacts include concrete spills, noise pollution, and the emission of air particles from transporting raw material and equipment to site and the risk of contaminated wastewater entering the environment. It was stated that the likely pollution is minimal as there are systems in place to ensure that the environment is not significantly affected.
In explaining its decision as to why an EIA is not required, the EPA said that the application will be processed for operation of the project since verification inspection confirmed that aside from an existing fence and drain, no other construction will be required. However loaders and rollers will be used to apply loam and crusher run on the base of the project, which will result in dust and noise emanating from the site during the land preparation phase. It was stated that there will be no effluent discharge or air emission originating from the project.
As a result a 30-Day Public Notice was published and persons who may be affected are invited to lodge an appeal against the decision within that timeframe.
An Environmental Response Preparedness Plan was submitted to the Agency and it was noted that the project site is an area of 1.6 acres as recorded by the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission. The previous land use was an abandoned cane field.
According to the project summary, the site will see most of the land as open space except for work accommodation structure – a 2X4 feet container office and security huts. It was revealed that over $115 million will be invested to prepare the site for operations and 3 to 12 employees would be hired when operations commence.
Preparation of land should take 14 days and operations would last no less than 5 years. The facility will store vehicles, heavy equipment, machines and associated accessories and piles along with associated components and fittings.