EIA Costa Rica Miravalles Geothermal Field

The Miravalles Geothermal field is located in the north of the country at the Miravalles Volcano in Bagaces, in the province of Guanacaste. In this geothermal field we find the Miravalles I, Miravalles II, and Miravalles III power plants. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Miravalles project was done in 1988. The importance of this project is that it was the first EIA ever done on history of Costa Rica but it does contain all the environmental consideration in the modern methodology of the EIA including the social aspects.

In Costa Rica all projects need to obtain permission from the Ministerio de Energia, Ambiente, and Telecommunications (MINAET). The MINAET classifies projects in three categories low, moderate, and high impact significance. Low impact significant projects only need an environmental declaration, moderate impact projects an environmental management program and high impact projects would require a partial or full EIA depending on the importance of the impacts.

The main activities in the development of the project were the well location, the site building, the well drilling and concludes with the well production test. Through a matrix of identification of environmental impacts the main risks identified in the productive process of the power plants were effects over the Fauna, Deforestation, Landscape, Air pollution, Noise, Visual Impact, Water pollution, Soil Pollution, and Waste. However the main impacts of project are noise accounting for 22% of the total impact the project will have, second comes soil pollution with 15%, and third water pollution with 14% of the total impact. The last two due to possible leaks hazardous materials like oil gas or chemical products.

It is also important to mention that the project developer Instituto Nacional de Electricidad (ICE) efforts for environmental protection didn’t stop with the initial EIA and continues with and ISO 14000 Environmental Management System (EMS) in 2002. This ensures the continuous revising and improvement of the plant regarding environmental issues. The EMS resembles the Deming cycle with a few changes. It starts with Identifying and evaluating the environmental impacts, Planning of the environmental programs, Doing (implementation), Checking and monitoring, Acting (improvement of the programs), and the addition of policy making for the power plants. The aim of this is to identify new impacts that may arise in the productive processes, and reduction and mitigation of the actual impacts. As well as the systematization and improvement of impact identification, environmental programs, public relations, legal accomplishment, and environmental performance.

The relevance of this project for environmental performance in the country consists in that it doesn’t stop with EIA at the begging of the project but that of the consistent and sustained effort of the administration to commit to its environmental responsibility through the EMS. This is essential in order to prevent future environmental disasters and also enables the project to adapt to the  continuous tightening of environmental laws.

References:

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT CONSIDERATIONSFOR GEOTHERMAL DRILLING, Hartman Guido Sequeira, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, Centro de Servicio Recursos Geotérmicos, Guayabo de Bagaces, Guanacaste, COSTA RICA

Comments Off on EIA Costa Rica Miravalles Geothermal Field / 08 Feb 2012 por Javier Solano Palacios
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