Geothermal Plant EDC submits environment papers

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Copies of the environmental compliance certificate and environmental performance report and management plan were on Thursday submitted to Governor Roel Degamo by the Energy Development Corporation for its 49.4-megawatt Nasulo Geothermal Power Plant in Valencia, Negros Oriental.

This was EDC’s compliance of the request of former Valencia town Mayor Ricky Gonzales and the provincial government to clarify some environmental issues on the geothermal project raised by environmentalists and advocacy groups.

Engineer Dwight Maxino, EDC’s vice president for southern and northern geothermal projects, said the EPRMP includes the company’s environmental policies, performance and conditions.

“EDC has been responsibly conducting its business alongside environmental stewardship through its watershed management program that includes social forestry, biodiversity conservation and monitoring and forest protection,” Maxino also said in a press release the other day.

Maxino and his team delivered the documents to Degamo following a commitment from Richard Tantoco, EDC president and chief operations officer, during an energy summit at a hotel in Dumaguete on September 26.

Gonzales confirmed the EDC team also visited him at his house, as he was among those who asked the company for copies of the environmental impact assessment and the environmental impact study in relation to its geothermal project.

Environmental advocacy groups, in their Save Mt. Talinis campaign, had earlier raised some issues and concerns against EDC, while expressing their sentiment against the cutting of trees at the site of the project.