Environmental report on fish farm complete
Stabroek News
June 18, 2004
A draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the New Line Aqua Farm is now complete, paving the way for its review by an Environmental Assessment Board.
The farm, which is being developed by Salim Azeez, had been denied an environmental permit by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) until steps were taken to bring the operation into compliance with EPA requirements for large-scale commercial projects.
The EIA which costs US$50,000 (G$9.95M) was prepared by New Line Aqua Farm and SRM Engineering. It was publicised two weeks ago in the press and it is now available for 60 days for persons to respond to.
The farm is set on approximately 743 acres of land leased from the government. It is located at Newline and Speeweir Canal No. 2 Polder, West Bank Demerara in the Boerasirie Reserve. The company will rear red tilapia, black tilapia and paku fish and is expected to employ 300 people when fully operational.
The site is being divided into three sections for tilapia farming the first being fish stocking, hatchery and gender differentiation.
The second phase allows the fish to grow and fully mature before harvesting. The third phase will be placed on a 200-acre plot and would house all the processing facilities. The processing would feature a conveyer belt that would take the harvested fish to be de-gutted, filleted, packaged, freeze stored, and ready for transportation. The facilities proposed for the complex are a feed mill, processing plant, electrical generator, packaging plant and a cold storage freezing complex.
With regard to water management, the Hubabu Creek that previously ran into the Demerara has been blinded and would provide neutral pH water. The water will be drained into the top end of each cell and allowed to run out at the bottom into a separate drainage canal and channelled directly into the Demerara and not into the Boerasirie Water Conser-vancy. The developer has proposed a well for the site for the processing operations but is waiting on the go-ahead from the relevant bodies. Daily monitoring of water quality parameters such as nitrates and pH levels will be carried out with water quality sampling kits now in the possession of the developer.
With regard to environmental management the developer intends to construct a large dam around the project site creating an island in the conservancy and minimising his interactions with the surrounding areas by recycling most of the pond and processing water.
The project would impact on the environment through land transformation and drainage pattern alterations creating a significant environmental footprint.
The impact assessment acknowledges that the farm would have both positive and negative effects on residents. Movement of workers and material to and from the site will negatively affect local homeowners, traffic patterns and the state of repair to the Canal No. 2 Polder Road. The positive aspects are employment and training and increased economic activity.