With increased oil and gas activity necessitating the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to identify sites around the country for the development of state-of-the art landfills while it prepares for closer scrutiny of ongoing operations.
“Generally speaking, we have a problem with waste disposal here. We have to address that and it is why we are looking to have a landfill in possibly every municipality that is at a location where it is safe and sustainable,” EPA Managing Director Vincent Adams said in an interview.
“Now, with ramped up activity from the oil and gas sector added to the current situation, and while we believe that the companies will do the right thing as it pertains waste management, we have our part to do and it is why we too are ramping up preparations,” he added.
ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd (EEPGL), has said that while its Stabroek Block operations would only minutely contribute to potential impacts for the environment, it recognises the need for increased Georgetown-based hazardous waste treatment and landfill capacity.
It is against this background that the EPA and the Ministry of Communities have partnered to undertake an analysis of areas for possible landfill sites across the country. The analysis is nearly completed.
Adams noted that he had lamented the unsanitary manner of waste management here after the first assessment of landfills was undertaken when he took up his position last year.
“…Waste is being disposed in a very unsanitary manner. It exposes a risk to vulnerable areas, such as water sheds, and that is happening all over the country. So, like I said, the EPA is working with the Ministry of Communities right now to identify proper sites across the country, so that we can design and build state-of-the-art landfills,” he said.
“We are in the process now of completing the reviews of sites of all of the waste disposal sites. It places more need that landfills be in areas that don’t interfere with persons’ lives and the environment. We need them to be properly designed so that the waste could be properly isolated, so that it would not enter the environment, such as in the ground water table or leech into streams or surface water,” he added.
Adams said that with increased oil and gas activity, ensuring that disposal areas meet the strictest of standards is a main objective of the agency, which is why it will continue to rigidly monitor the way waste from those operations are disposed of.
Concerns have been raised by environmental activist Annette Arjoon-Martins about the monitoring of hazardous waste from offshore operations. “What about data on the quantities and, more importantly, types of hazardous waste that is being generated and brought to our shores for treatment and disposal?” she questioned last Thursday at the final Payara Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) disclosure meeting, which was held at the Marian Academy in Georgetown.
She told ExxonMobil officials that while the company was not directly handling its waste disposal and would hire subcontractors, it should “be obligated to ensure that those contractors do the right thing.” “Have you required your contractors doing so to have an environmental impact assessment done? Because it’s the right thing to do since our present landfills are near populated areas,” she added.
Guyana has passed comprehensive legislation governing the management of solid waste, but there is no specific legislation governing the management of hazardous and non-hazardous waste generated by the exploration, and drilling for oil.
Arjoon-Martins said that while she does not live in the Eccles area, where the Haags Bosch landfill is located, she is concerned that waste from ExxonMobil’s planned operations will be disposed of at the landfill and noted the need for periodic studies to be done of the water table in the area to see if there are any seepages.
She believes that because of the close proximity of the landfill to residential communities, more checks on hazardous waste disposal from oil and gas needs to be done.
ExxonMobil has said that for all of its projects it plans to have “multiple alternatives” pertaining to waste management.
While waste from its planned Payara operation will be disposed of at another cell that the Ministry of Communities is responsible for constructing at the Haags Bosch site, the company said that it will “monitor construction of new landfill cell and or identify suitable local and regional alternatives.”
Adams has assured that the EPA will strictly monitor the waste disposal operations of all of the oil companies and pointed out that only recently his agency visited ExxonMobil’s waste disposal contractor, the Trinidad-based Tiger Tanks.
He had told this newspaper that since the EPA lacks the equipment and expertise needed to carry out the testing necessary to verify compliance in some cases, it relies heavily on mandatory reporting by operators in the oil and gas sector to verify their compliance with waste management stipulations.
While the EPA is aggressively looking to build its capacity by procuring the expertise and equipment, verification through reporting and observations is normal, he pointed out.
But he believes that if the companies have committed in their permit agreements to proper waste management then they will comply since they know the sanctions they can face and the effects it would have on their image.
As it pertains to hazardous waste, Adams has that it is brought ashore, treated, and stored by Tiger Tanks. The EPA, Adams said, makes routine visits to Tiger Tanks local sites, and the oil ships, to verify that the standards set are being complied with. He indicated that these activities, along with reports each operator is required to submit, are used to verify compliance with the terms of permits.
