The Spanish Lookout oil spill reported all over the media last week has forced the resurgence of a flood of concerns over the environmental soundness of oil exploration in Belize, while highlighting the risk authorities are taking in permitting exploration and commercial activities to proceed without due adherence to important environmental laws.
The bigger question is: Why is the DOE unable to regulate BNE’s activities? Official sources tell us that the DOE has attempted to move on BNE three times, but their hands were stayed either by high-level intervention from top levels of Government or through pledges by BNE officials to comply with the DOE’s demands.
With respect to the oil spill, BNE contends that it has acted responsibly and that it has proper plans in place to address potential environmental hazards. The DOE, on the other hand, contends that BNE is not complying with Belize laws.
The DOE goes on to allege that since May last year, BNE has refused to submit an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) for any of its operations, even though the law requires that they do. Allegedly, it was not until the DOE threatened court action in a meeting last week that BNE agreed to comply—but only partially, for one of its several exploration sites.
We understand that BNE is working at several other sites apart from Spanish Lookout, including Iguana Creek, Calla Creek, Yalbac, Georgeville and Belmopan.
Our information is that when the DOE called a meeting to address the EIA issue last week, BNE agreed to do an EIA, but just for their work at Georgeville, Cayo, where we understand three wells are being drilled. Present at that meeting were BNE’s attorneys, the Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Johnny Briceño, and department officials.
BNE has hired Halcrow (England) to do its environmental studies, and instead of the EIA which the DOE demanded, the company has submitted an “environmental audit” on December 3, 2006, and a “strategic environmental assessment” (SEA) on December 15, 2006. The DOE noted that the law does not ask for an SEA: it requires an EIA. The law doesn’t mention an SEA.
Upon delivering the SEA to the DOE, BNE informed the DOE that it was going to commence work at Georgeville. The DOE informed BNE again that an EIA had to be submitted and environmental clearance is required before any work commences at the site.
We understand that neither the environmental audit nor the strategic environmental assessment have yet been reviewed or approved by the Department or the National Environmental Appraisal Council.
In addition to an EIA, the law also requires that BNE submit an “emergency response plan” for its operations. This legal requirement has also not been met, Government officials say.
BNE contends that it has had in place “Oil Spill Response Procedures”, which it claims it forwarded to the DOE in April 2006; however, the Department argues that under law a more detailed emergency response plan is required.
In its defense, BNE also maintains that it is equipped with a vacuum truck, mobile spill unit and other devices to address oil spills. The company says that it promptly addressed the Spanish Lookout accident, and that it had also gotten written confirmation from the Belize Water Services that the nearby reservoir, used for the poultry industry, had not been contaminated by the spill.
An official release from the Department of the Environment, issued on Friday, January 12, said that, “The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNRE), through both the Department of the Environment and the Geology and Petroleum Department, is working closely with the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) in ensuring that the necessary contingency plans and the emergency response plans are properly developed and effectively instituted.”
A sound emergency plan is of particular concern because, as we reported in our Sunday, January 14, 2007, issue, the recent oil spill at BNE’s Spanish Lookout facility near Mike Usher #2 well has caused safety concerns to be raised in the affected community. Moreover, there are fears among area residents that there could be worse to come.
The DOE’s release issued Friday claims that only “three to five gallons” of oil had been spilled due to a device malfunction for a separator at Mike Usher #2. That same release, we note, does not mention the need for an EIA.
Also, we don’t know how the Ministry arrived at that estimate of three to five gallons, since our newspaper is reliably informed that the DOE was not formally advised of the spill until late Friday evening, when their office was about to close and the clean-up was already well underway.
In December there were two spills at the Big Creek port, from which BNE exports Belize crude to the US market. Our sources say that the DOE was likewise not advised until a day or two after the incident and so they were unable to properly assess the spills at Big Creek.
According to the DOE the proper protocol is for the DOE to be alerted as soon as there is a spill.
We are reliably informed that the DOE is also challenging the expansion of BNE’s Big Creek storage facilities, because when the DOE did its December 22 site visit, they saw more tanks being set up without the proper environmental clearance, and the Department is, reportedly, preparing to issue a stop order. The order, our sources say, would be issued to both BNE and the Big Creek port administration.
Local environmentalists have been strangely quiet about the recent oil spills, and the EIA issue.
Official sources also say that the DOE is additionally concerned that there are plans to import a small plant to process crude—a plan that, officials say, is being pursued even though there has been no environmental clearance.
Recent reports also confirm that BNE has been moving ahead with its plan to construct a 3-mile pipeline from Spanish Lookout to South Iguana Creek, where it intends to set up a tank farm and a mini-plant. The upswing of this, according to BNE, is that this would minimize the need for flaring natural gas.
The DOE underscores, however, that none of these operations at Spanish Lookout, Iguana Creek, Big Creek and even the wells BNE has explored in and around Belmopan, have gotten environmental clearance.
Note that BNE has, all the while, made its development plans public, despite the lack of environmental clearance.
Last May, for example, it announced its plans to build the Iguana Creek “field gathering” pipeline to collect Spanish Lookout oil, as well as new developments at Big Creek.
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