The Energy Development Corporation yesterday said the cutting of trees in Nasuji, Valencia town, Negros Oriental, is covered by permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Negros Oriental government.
           
The clarification comes in the heels of a news article of the Philippine Information Agency on the project, quoting environmental advocates during a Kapihan forum last week, who raised some concerns on the project.
           
The EDC clarified that the project is for its most recent well pad and road construction in the Nasuji area, where 576 trees were affected as part of its Nasulo project, its press release said.
           
The area is part of the geothermal reservation and is not a protected zone, the EDC press release added.
           
“The well construction for our re-injection technology is an environment-enhancing technique that injects the fluid separated from the steam back to the ground. It is used to continuously recharge the geothermal reservoir and address the safe and proper disposal of the brine component, maintaining our zero disposal system in our operations,” Dwight Maxino, EDC vice president for Negros Island Geothermal Business Unit, said in the press release.
           
It is one of the company’s environmental and watershed management programs that are crucial to its sustainability, it added. Other programs include forest protection, biodiversity monitoring and conservation, community development, and the Binhi Greening Legacy nationwide forest restoration program.
           
Directional drilling is being used to minimize surface disturbance. For the Nasuji well pad construction, EDC was able to avoid 57 percent of the 1,346 trees within the confined block, and did not involve a large area of old trees as a result of its directional drilling technology, the press release said.
           
EDC’s geothermal production field in Negros Oriental is a model for compact development because of its minimal environmental impact, due to the drilling technology adopted more than 30 years ago.
           
The company also committed to replace each affected tree with 100 indigenous seedlings that it will replant through its Binhi program. It has been able to reforest 2,737 hectares with 1.9 million seedlings in Negros Oriental, from 1989-2013, the press release said.*JFP/PR

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