BACKGROUND INFORMATION DOCUMENT · 2018-03-22 · Section 22 of the National Environmental ......

BACKGROUND INFORMATION DOCUMENT PROPOSED HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE STORAGE FACILITIES AT THE

SALDANHA BAY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ZONE

1. INTRODUCTION

The Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) is

located at the Port of Saldanha, covering a portion of

land within the port precinct and a back of port area

to the north of Main Road 559. The Saldanha Bay IDZ

Licensing Company (hereafter referred to as SBIDZ-LC)

was established as the official public entity, licence

holder and operator of the IDZ area.

The development of an oil and gas offshore service

complex (OSC) within the declared IDZ area was

authorised by the Department of Environmental

Affairs and Development Planning (DEA&DP) in

November 2015. The Environmental Authorisation

(EA) was issued in terms of the National

Environmental Management Act, 1998 (No. 107 of

1998) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Regulations 2014. Under the EA, various activities and

services were approved for development within the

OSC including, but not limited to:

• Maintenance and repair of offshore drilling units;

• A ship repair yard;

• Service base; and

• Other infrastructure.

At the time of the initial application for Environmental

Authorisation, it was not known which future

operations and specific industries would be

established within this area. It was thus not possible

to account for all possible activities in terms of the

NEMA EIA Regulations that might be triggered by

future developments or operations within the IDZ

area.

The SBIDZ-LC is now seeking to develop fuel bunkering

facilities within the IDZ (hereafter referred to as the

proposed project).

Before the proposed project can be implemented,

authorisation in terms of NEMA, as amended, is

required. In addition, an application for an

Atmospheric Emissions Licence (AEL) in terms of

Section 22 of the National Environmental

Management: Air Quality Act, 2004 (No. 39 of 2004),

as amended (NEM:AQA) would also be required.

SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (SLR) has been

appointed as the independent Environmental

Assessment Practitioner to undertake a Scoping and

EIA Process to meet the relevant requirements of,

amongst others, NEMA, the EIA Regulations 2014 (as

amended), and NEM:AQA (see Section 3).

2. PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT

This Background Information Document (BID) has

been compiled and distributed to:

• inform Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs)

about the legislative processes that the applicant

is required to comply with;

• provide a description of the proposed project;

• describe the Scoping and EIA process to be

followed;

• provide an overview of the key issues to be

investigated; and

• describe how I&APs can participate in the

process.

3. WHAT AUTHORISATION IS REQUIRED?

The EIA Regulations, 2014 (as amended) promulgated

in terms of Chapter 5 of NEMA, provides for the

control of certain listed activities. Such activities are

prohibited from commencing until written

authorisation is obtained from the competent

authority, which in this case is DEA&DP. These

activities are listed in Government Notices (GN) No.

R983, R982, and R985, as amended.

Similarly, listed activities and associated minimum

emission standards identified in terms of Section 21 of

NEM:AQA (published in GN R893 of 2013, as

amended) are prohibited from commencing until an

AEL is obtained.

Background Information Document: Proposed Hazardous Substance Storage Facilities, Saldanha Bay IDZ

SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd 2 March 2018

The following activities that may be triggered by the

proposed project have been identified:

GN R982 - Listing Notice 2 (under NEMA)

4.

“The development and related operation of facilities or

infrastructure, for the storage, or storage and handling

of a dangerous good, where such storage occurs in

containers with a combined capacity of more than 500

cubic metres”.

6.

“The development of facilities or infrastructure for any

process or activity which requires a permit or licence or

an amended permit or licence in terms of national or

provincial legislation governing the generation or

release of emissions, pollution or effluent”.

7. “The development and related operation of facilities or

infrastructure for the bulk transportation of dangerous

goods -

(ii) in liquid form, outside an industrial complex , using

pipelines, exceeding 1 000 metres in length, with a

throughput capacity of more than 50 cubic metres

per day”

GN R893 (under NEM:AQA)

4. Subcategory 2.4: Storage and Handling of Petroleum

Products

“All permanent immobile liquid Storage facilities at a

single site with a combined storage capacity of greater-

than 1000 cubic meters.”

Thus, a Scoping and EIA process must be undertaken in

order to apply for an EA and an AEL.

It has been confirmed at a pre-application meeting with

DEA&DP that the required Scoping and EIA process will

only focus on the assessment of impacts related to the

newly triggered activities. The assessment will thus

focus on the storage of hazardous substances and

related air emissions and risks. Impacts related to the

clearance of natural vegetation, freshwater

ecosystems, heritage/archaeology, visual and noise

were deemed to be sufficiently assessed in the

previously approved EIA and would thus not be re-

assessed as part of the new application process.

4. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Construction is soon to commence on various approved

project components of the Saldanha Bay IDZ

development at the recently expanded GMQ and on

adjoining port land. The first components relate to the

establishment of the OSSB at the GMQ and various

other supporting services on a 20 ha adjoining area

within the IDZ. Already approved components include

a fabrication yard, pipe coating yard and various

storage and handling facilities. Access to the OSSB and

20 ha site would be obtained via the existing Port of

Saldanha access gates.

The current EIA will focus on activities that were not

previously assessed and covered by the current EA for

the IDZ. These include the following:

• Ancillary fuel bunkering at the OSSB;

• A fuel bunkering facility for the storage of marine

fuels and supply to offshore vessels within a 20 ha

adjacent IDZ area; and

• Storage of dangerous goods.

The above-mentioned components are described in

more detail below and illustrated in Figure 1.

4.1 OSSB AT THE GMQ

The OSSB at the GMQ will provide the following

services:

• Ancillary bunkering, fuel oil and lubricants refill

services with a storage footprint of

approximately 1 000 m2. Three 1 000 m

3 tanks

for marine bunker fuels and one 500 m3 tank for

helicopter fuel.

• Material on/offloading facilities via the recently

expanded quayside.

• Temporary storage facilities with a container

stacking yard of approximately 1 000 m2.

• Water refill facility for potable water (2 x 500 m3

tanks) and a 1 000 m2 area for mixing and

blending of drill fluids/muds.

• Office and warehousing buildings.

• Waste disposal services – a 300 m2 area for the

collection and handling of offshore oil and gas and

general wastes.

• Small scale pipe coating facility.

Of these, only the fuel bunkering component, indicated

in bold, would require environmental authorisation. All

other components of the OSSB are currently legally

permissible at the GMQ.

4.2 FUEL BUNKERING FACILITY

The fuel bunkering and blending facility for the

storage of marine fuel for supply to offshore vessels is



proposed within a 20 ha area of the IDZ. Oil pipelines

would connect the intake located at the oil tanker

terminal at the entrance to Saldanha Bay to the

proposed bunkering facility. The facility would have a

total storage capacity of approximately 100 000 m³ and

a footprint of approximately 3 ha. It would be located

adjacent to the proposed Pipe Coating Yard,

approximately 350 m inland of the high water mark of

the sea.

The bunkering facility would require an EA and would

be assessed as part of the Scoping and EIA process.

4.5 LUBRICATION STORAGE & BLENDING FACILITY

AND STORAGE OF OTHER DANGEROUS GOODS

It is proposed to establish a Lubricant Storage and

Blending Facility for the manufacture of lubricants. The

facility would be approximately 2 ha in extent.

Depending on the hazardous nature of the substances

and storage capacity, this component might also

require environmental authorisation. This will be

confirmed during the EIA process and further detailed

design of the facility.

The EIA process will also aim to assess the potential

storage of dangerous goods across the rest of the IDZ

area, should other operators need to store such

substances in future.

5. SCOPING AND EIA ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The EIA Regulations 2014 (as amended) define the

detailed approach to the Scoping and EIA process. The

key steps where you can participate and provide input

during the process are highlighted below.

5.1 PRE-APPLICATION PROCESS

The objectives of the initial public participation process

are to ensure that I&APs are:

• notified of the proposed project and required

environmental authorisation process;

• provided with a reasonable opportunity to register

on the project database; and

• provided with an opportunity to comment (see

Section 7).

Comments received during this initial phase will be

used to inform the preparation of the draft Scoping

Report for the proposed project.

5.2 APPLICATION PROCESS

Scoping Phase

The purpose of this phase is to confirm the project

scope, key issues and the terms of reference for the

specialist studies. This will be set out in a draft Scoping

Report, which will be made available for a 30-day

public review and comment period during the second

quarter of 2018.

The final Scoping Report, along with all I&AP

comments, will be submitted to DEA&DP for their

review and acceptance.

EIA Phase

The issues identified during the Scoping Phase will be

assessed in specialist studies and integrated into a draft

Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The draft EIR will

be made available for a 30-day public review and

comment period (third quarter of 2018).

The final EIR, along with all I&AP comments, will be

submitted to DEA&DP for review and decision-making.

6. KEY ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION

A number of key issues associated with the proposed

project that were not assessed as part of the original

EIA process for the Offshore Oil and Gas Service

Complex, have to date been identified for

consideration in the Scoping and EIA process. These

include:

• The potential impact of the proposed fuel

bunkering facilities on air quality;

• The risks related to the establishment of a

potentially hazardous installation in the Port of

Saldanha; and

• Construction-related impacts of the proposed fuel

bunkering facilities and pipeline.

Previously assessed impacts related to noise, visual,

vegetation, heritage and freshwater ecology will be

referenced in order to confirm that the proposed new

bunkering facilities would not affect the significance

ratings assigned by specialists during the previous EIA

process.



7. INVITATION TO COMMENT ON THE

PROPOSED PROJECT

You and/or your organisation are hereby invited to

register as an I&AP and provide input with regard the

proposed project.

You can become involved as follows:

• by reading this document and letting us know of any

initial issues or concerns that you may have;

• by providing us with contact particulars of any other

organisations or persons who may be affected by or

interested in the proposed project; and

• by registering as an I&AP (see attached Registration

Form).

This BID has been distributed for a 30-day comment

period from 22 March to 23 April 2018 (making

provision for the public holidays in March and April).

Should you wish to register or comment, kindly forward

your details to SLR (at the contact details below) by no

later than 23 April 2018.

SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd

Unit 39, Roeland Square

30 Drury Lane, Cape Town, 8001

Tel: (021) 461 1118 / 9

Fax: (021) 461 1120

E-mail: [email protected]



Figure 1: Local setting and layout plan of the proposed Offshore Supply Base at the General Maintenance Quay and adjacent 20 ha area that is

proposed for development. Storage activities requiring Environmental Authorisation are indicated in yellow.

General Maintenance Quay

FABRICATION YARD

FACILITY

PIPE COATING

FACILITY

HARD STAND LUBRICANT

FACILITY

BUNKERING

FACILITY FUTURE

DEVELOPMENT

SCOPING AND EIA PROCESS FOR THE PROPOSED HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE STORAGE FACILITIES

AT THE SALDANHA BAY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ZONE

INTERESTED AND AFFECTED PARTY (I&AP)

REGISTRATION AND RESPONSE FORM

Would you or your organisation like to become a registered I&AP* and continue to receive information on the proposed project?

Yes No

Name :

Organisation:

Postal address:

Email address:

Telephone number: Fax number:

Do you or your organisation have any issues or concerns regarding the proposed project?

If yes, please provide details below: Yes No

Registered Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs) in terms of Regulation 42 of

GN No. R982 of 4 December 2014 (as amended) includes all persons:

• who have submitted written comments;

• attended public meetings; and

• who have requested in writing, for their names to be placed on the register.

On receipt of a decision for the application, only registered I&APs will be notified,

in terms of Regulation 4(2) of GN No. R982 of 4 December 2014 (as amended), of:

• where the decision can be accessed;

• what the reasons for the decision were; and

• how an appeal may be lodged against the decision.

SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd

Unit 39, Roeland Square

30 Drury Lane, Cape Town, 8001

Tel: (021) 461 1118 / 9

Fax: (021) 461 1120

E-mail: [email protected]

BACKGROUND INFORMATION DOCUMENT · 2018-03-22 · Section 22 of the National Environmental ......

Documents

Transcript of BACKGROUND INFORMATION DOCUMENT · 2018-03-22 · Section 22 of the National Environmental ......