Going
offshore at Otaheite: NEC leads ambitious
plans to build new industrial estate on land reclaimed
at sea
By Asha Javeed
Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
01 21 07
Prime
Minister Patrick Manning’s Christmas Eve announcement
that the site for Alcoa’s aluminium smelter
plant would move from Chatham to a new industrial
estate offshore at Otaheite Bank, came after a year
of public debate, and overwhelmingly negative comments
on the plan to build the smelter at Chatham.
The
new site, yet to be constructed, will take three
years to become a reality and available for use.
Guardian’s
Business reporter Asha Javeed sat down with Prakash
Saith president of the National Energy Corporation
(NEC), John Jones superintendent of engineering,
design and construction, and Vijai Lal senior project
engineer last week to discuss the new industrial
site and address some of the concerns that have
been raised about its feasibility.
It’s
been two years in the making and when objection
to Alcoa’s proposed smelter plant in Chatham
reached a crescendo, Government’s rabbit-in-the-hat
was the Oropouche Bank site off Otaheite.
The
site appears perfect for industrialisation—it
is offshore, no vegetation, and there is the potential
for a world class port.
It's
yet to be built, though.
And
it’ll take three years before it’s ready
for Alcoa, if it chooses, to begin construction
of its US$1.5 billion, 341,000 metric-tonne smelter
plant.
Alcoa
has already expressed its disappointment at the
Government’s decision to move the plant, which
means that it will delay construction even further.
It
was in the process of finalising an environment
impact assessment and was conducting soil sample
research for the past five months.
Prakash
Saith, president of the National Energy Corporation
(NEC), said it was given the mandate by Government
to develop new industrial sites.
The
three selected were:
Point
Lisas, south and east—1,400 hectares
Cap-de-Ville—530
hectares
Oropouche
Bank—1,400 hectares
Essar
Steel is already located in Point Lisas and Alcoa
moved to Oropouche Bank. Plans to develop Cap-de-Ville
are now abandoned (see sidebar).
Saith
admitted that the NEC did not anticipate the smelter
plant having to move under public pressure.
People
were concerned with emissions and now they start
to spread a whole set of rumours about Oropouche.
At the end of the day, the Government took a decision
because of the feedback it received. But there is
a lot of misinformation in the public domain. Smelter
management has changed in the last 100 years. Technology
has changed,” he argued.
But
NEC is ahead of the game.
It
has already put the Oropouche Bank development project
out for tender, which is expected to close at the
end of January.
We
know what we are doing. We are engineers with over
85 years’ experience (referring to the combined
experience of himself, Jones and Lal). And we are
looking to hire foreign experts who are specialised
in this type of development. They will design things
to deal with all the issues which will come up,”
said Saith.
Now
people don’t want the industry on land and
when we put it out in the sea, they complain. How
my people so?” he asked.
Saith
is quick to observe the importance of industrialisation
to the country’s economic fortunes.
Nobody
wants industrialisation, but they want all the wealth
that goes with it. People need to understand that
the good standard of living that they have is mainly
because of the Point Lisas industrial estate. It
is because of Point Lisas, the country has been
able to have a reasonable exchange rate of six to
one (average TT$6=US$1).
If
we will continue to earn foreign exchange, we need
to have more industrialisation. People don’t
understand that the standard of living that they
have is because of the industry. They don’t
connect the dots,” he noted.
Lal
said: “All the naysayers who say that the
planning is not being done correctly, they are acting
on emotion. They have an idea, but they have no
knowledge of what is actually being done. They don’t
know exactly the process that is taking place.”
The
Oropouche Bank
Lal
said the Oropouche Bank was identified in November
2004 and work was being done concomitantly with
the other sites of Cap-de-Ville and Point Lisas
South.
It
is leeward of Dow Village, within 10 km of San Fernando,
the Labidco site and the new Union industrial estate.
And its location on the Gulf of Paria, which is
a very calm, sheltered area, makes it ideal for
berthing vessels.
A
cost is yet to be tabulated for this project, but
Jones said it could be significant.
These
factors were identified in NEC’s southwest
peninsula master plan study.
Some
of the criteria included:
A
large continuous parcels of land with a minimum
of 400 hectares
Affordable,
guaranteed, reliable bulk utilities available
Proximity
to existing or potential area for deep water
Minimum
environmental/social impacts for mitigation
Minimum
occupancy and encumbrances to clear
Favourable
geotechnical properties to minimise construction
costs—fill, foundations settlement, consolidation
Ease
of acquisition or preferably owned by the State
We
are now doing detailed engineering analysis for
land development, zoning and planning—we have
shifted from just a normal beam and column calculation
to modelling and analysis and computer-generated
simulation to tell us how these things will do to
optimise the whole location,” said Jones.
Saith
observed that the Oropouche Bank was a natural accresion
with only about three metres of filling to be done.
He
explained that one kilometre from the southwest
shoreline was an embankment, built over the years
from silt deposits from the Orinoco and Godineau
Rivers. It will take about three years to fill.
This
could develop an industrial estate of 1,400 hectares
in the initial stage for Alcoa’s smelter plant
and could extend up to 2,600 for other industries.
A bridge will be constructed to link the offshore
estate to the mainland.
“We
know all the complaints. We know what we are talking
about and we are designing for it. People does do
like is something we never hear about. We know that
there is drainage there, we know that the sea has
certain currents going there—that is why we
are putting a bridge there so that the currents
can continuously pass below. And these are things
that people making a big issue about,” said
Saith.
Jones
observed that one of the attractions of an offshore
location was that it would prevent the whole issue
of soil contamination while creating a significant
amount of land base offshore.
These
are some of the advantages. Of course, there may
be some disadvantages. But the question remains:
how do we deal with the disadvantages? We will do
modelling of what exists—the waves, tides
and we can vary it and can come up with what we
call an optimum solution,” said Jones.
That
will minimise, reduce or mitigate some of the effects
that are being talked about. When we talk about
affecting the fishing bed or affecting the circulation
factors. All of these things can be modelled and
we can come up with an approach to mitigate any
of the potential problems that could exist,”
said Jones.
Most
of the challenges the NEC will face will be design
issues-site access, provision of access for fishing,
drainage, coastal protection, dredging methodology,
engineering design and modeling and analysis, sedimentation,
wave penetration, oceanography.
He
said the advantage that Trinidad had in the construction
of its island was that some of the negative effects
that could be experienced with off-shore islands
could be improved as new things will be taken into
consideration.
Lal
said: “We are doing very early planning studies,
preliminary designs-taking the designs and doing
socio-economic analysis, technical analysis, feasibility
analysis. Then we looking at the planning and integrating
to the overall national physical planning and making
it a coherent project.
We
are not just doing it arbitrarily. We are looking
at roads, power, gas, habitat impact—housing,
institutional facilities, hospitals, community facilities,
employment creation, education level. For example,
if you look at the education level in Couva, it
is much higher than the national average because
of the single influence of the Point Lisas industrial
estate.”
Jones
said: “At the end of the day, we are looking
for sustainable transferable capacity to diversify
the economic base and what we are looking for in
this project in Oropouche is going to be a world
scale addition to our physical infrastructure.”
The
fishing industry?
There
has already been protest about the establishment
of an offshore island because of the damage it could
do to the fishing industry.
But
Lal refutes this allegation.
He
noted that the bank is located one kilometre from
the shoreline, Otaheite being the nearest fish-landing
site and the Oropouche Lagoon being two kilometres
away.
He
said a popular concern was the site joining the
coast, which will remove the water and affect the
current circulation.
This
is far from the truth. The Godineau will fall east
of the bank and it will not cause any flooding problem.
As for current circulation, this is all going to
be computerised to determine how this island should
be configured and how it should be shaped so that
it will not have any coastal erosion,” said
Lal.
Lal
explained that the area is located in proximity
to two mangroves—the Rousillac and the Oropouche
swamps.
“The
Rousillac swamp generally has no hydraulic connectivity
with the Oropouche Bank. From the studies we have
done, it will have very little impact.
Many
people believe that the Godineau River coming through
the bank is what delivers sediment. That is far
from the truth. The sediment from the Oropuche Bank
comes all the way from the Amazon, the Orinoco River
in a clockwise direction. Material from the Diego
Martin River, the Caroni River and the Cunupia River
bring silt and put it down on the Oropouche Bank,”
he said.
He
explained the one kilometre distance would still
allow for near-shore fishing because the nutrients
leaving the river will be concentrated in that area—the
fishing community might even be enhanced.
Our
reports show that from the records the commercial
viability of the fish could barely match the cost
of doing the fishing and it is really low level
commercial, subsistence fishing and to really fish,
you have to go offshore to trawl because you can’t
trawl near-shore.
Fifty
per cent of boats go to Icacos, the maritime boundary
with Venezuela and northwards towards the Bocas
to do the trawling. So where the bank is going to
be located has minimum impact on trawling.
The
fishing over the years has been progressively declining
and the reason for that is not the presence of the
Oropouche Bank. The reason for that is the outfall
from the
Godineau
River itself is so highly contaminated with chemical
contaminants like magnesium and phosphorous that
it causes the fishing community to be gradually
depleted over the years. The bank itself, because
it is a mud bank, the suspension restricts the commercial
species,” explained Lal.
Lal
is optimistic that the NEC should be able to provide
a fishing facility on the island.
We
believe that we should be able to provide a fishing
facility on the island that will enhance the fishing
community as a whole as a livelihood. We have already
discussed the potential for locating a fishing facility
with modern facilities like icing, boat repairs,
boat landing, net repairs, commercial facilities
and to go further offshore to enhance the commercial
viability of the fishing. We are planning a special
area which will be sustainable,” he said.
Building
the bank
As
the NEC moves forward with its plans to build the
Oropouche Bank, Lal was cognisant of fact that while
the hurdles are different, there are fewer angry
residents to contend with.
“We
have no vegetation, no housing, no relocation, no
displacement to deal with, no need for large buffers,”
said Lal.
The
risk associated to the public is low, whereas in
terrestrial sites, you have to have evacuation measures,
etc. The whole employment scenario throughout the
life cycle of this project would be enhanced—employment
during construction, in the operation of plant,
the different levels of employment... and all the
socio-economic indicators which go with it will
be increased,” said Lal.
Jones
noted that during the reclamation, there is a sudden
drop in the seaward end to 20 metres of water.
For
the first time, we are going to have the opportunity
to bring these ocean-going vessels to a port with
a depth of up to 12.8 metres,”he said.
Becoming
political
It’s
the second time around for NEC and handling public
relations with Alcoa’s smelter plant.
This
time it intends to have more information out for
public consumption.
Saith
acknowledged that NEC did not disseminate enough
information in the first instance with public outcry
over the smelter construction winning media favour.
We
have taken a decision that we want to move from
public information to put in factual and intellectual
information outside. What is happening is that public
relations may not be targeting issues which may
be relevant to the project,” said Lal.
Lal
explained that the corporation intended to be visible
in all public consultations to distribute information.
Asked
whether they thought the Oropouche Bank would become
a political issue in upcoming elections, Jones responded:
“We are dealing with it as a potential political
issue. As NEC, we are not political; we are an engineering
institution. We have to deal with factual and scientific
information.
We
have to carry out certain studies. We have to get
a terms of reference from the Environment Management
Authority, which will outline some of the studies
which we have to undertake. Elections will probably
start and finish before we go through that process.
We are doing it in a way which is unemotional, practical
and scientific.”
Chatham
abandoned
Chatham
has now become an abandoned site. Government will
have to decide what it wants to do,” said
Jones.
The
Government has abandoned all plans to pursue an
industrial estate in Chatham.
Dr
Lenny Saith, Minister in the Ministry of Energy
and Energy Industries, said the Prime Minister had
stated very clearly that no industrialisation would
be pursued in Chatham.
We
will no longer be looking at Chatham for industrialisation,
“ he told the Business Guardian in a brief
telephone interview.
The
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday 11th Janurary, 2007
Copyright
©2006 The Trinidad Guardian . All Rights Reserved.
