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Press Release on The Sinai Disaster.
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) sends sincere condolences to the families and relatives affected by the Sinai fire incident occasioned by a petroleum leak from the Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) pipeline system.
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) sends sincere condolences to the families and relatives affected by the Sinai fire incident occasioned by a petroleum leak from the Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) pipeline system.
NEMA is mandated with the responsibility of ensuring a clean and healthy environment. Under the Energy Act of 2006 Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is the lead agency empowered to formulate, enforce and review environmental health, safety and quality standards for the energy sector in collaboration with other statutory authorities. Consequently, the Authority has been monitoring petroleum handling facilities in conjunction with ERC.
It came to the attention of NEMA on Monday 12 September 2011 that a disaster had occurred in Sinai Slum. Compliance and Enforcement officers from NEMA were immediately dispatched to the site with the purpose of investigating and addressing environmental concerns at the site. However when NEMA officers got to the site they were unable to access the site as only fire fighters, Red Cross personnel and ambulance vehicles were granted access to the site to save lives. NEMA officers returned to the site on Tuesday 13 September 2011 where they were able to establish that the following had occurred:
i. Air pollution: Flames from the site had released particulate matter in to the atmosphere which includes, dust, soot and smoke from the area. It is likely that gases such as hydrogen sulphide and sulphur oxides and volatile organic compounds such as benzene and toluene were contained in the fumes that engulfed the area. Some of the pollutants are know to have negative health effects. Residents and members of the public who visited the area are asked to liaise immediately with the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation and Ministry of Medical services for expert help.
ii. Soil pollution: The soil was contaminated by ash from the burnt materials.
iii. Water pollution: Petroleum fuel is highly volatile and therefore evaporates quickly. NEMA envisages that the petroleum product in Ngong River was burnt up or evaporated.
According to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Audit (EA) Regulations 2003 all petroleum handling facilities among others are required to undertake EIAs for new facilities and annual EA’s for existing facilities. The EIAs and EAs are expected to detail mitigation measures put in place to handle the risk of pollution which may arise from leaks and spills as well as system failures. The Authority has not received an environmental audit of the current KPC facility and therefore cannot ascertain the adequacy of mitigation measures within the facility.
NEMA further wishes to state that if pre-requisite spill containment measures at the facility been put in place, the product would not have gotten in to the surface runoff drains. Furthermore if human settlements had been removed from the way leave in the Sinai area the incidences of human casualties and the magnitude of environmental damage would have been minimal. Political good will and preventive actions by other relevant lead agencies is required in order to ensure that the requisite enforcement measures are put in place to clear way leaves, settlement near riparian areas, petroleum pipeline, power lines, sewer lines, railways, petroleum depots and relevant infrastructure is discouraged.
According to the Constitution, Kenyans equally have a duty to safeguard the environment. NEMA is bestowed with a huge mandate by the Environment Management and Coordination Act 1999. NEMA has only 117 inspectors who undertake inspections countrywide, environmental licensing based on seven regulations and who also man provincial and district environment offices. NEMA’s records indicate that there are 11,300 facilities that require to be inspected preferably annually. This presents a huge work load for the officers and therefore it is unfortunate that this facility had yet to be reached by NEMA officers.
Consequently NEMA wishes to clearly state that:
1) The KPC Nairobi Terminal pump station (PS 10, PS 21) facility has not submitted an annual Environmental Audit Report to NEMA.
2) KPC has never submitted Environmental Audit report for the pipeline. Hence NEMA was not aware about the age of the pipeline.
3) The KPC facility had not applied for an effluent discharge license despite the fact that the company’s 16 countrywide facilities have been licensed under the Water Quality Regulations (2006). NEMA expects that KPC would have disclosed all its facilities for issuance of an effluent discharge license under the Water Quality Regulation (2006). They therefore violated the law and had no authority to discharge effluent in to the Ngong River. This is also against the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) policy of KPC.
4) There are allegations that KPC was discharging oil into the storm drain. NEMA was not aware of this since members of the public had not brought this to our attention.
5) A team comprising of officers from NEMA, the Energy Regulatory Commission, Water Resources Management Authority, Ministry of Energy, Nairobi City Council, Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, and the Department of Occupational Health and Safety will undertake a control audit of the KPC facility in order to get information that will serve as a baseline for putting in place intervening mechanisms to ensure that an incident such as this does not recur.
6) NEMA has officially directed KPC to undertake risk assessments for all its facilities as well as an environmental audit of the pipeline from Mombasa to the last point of conveyance clearly indicating which sections will be given priority in replacement, mitigation measures put in place to ensure no leakages, spills or pipeline failure occur as well as the measures put in place while awaiting construction of a parallel line.
7) NEMA has issued restoration orders to KPC to restore the degraded environment especially the flora and fauna along the river as well as the contaminated soil.
8) Enforcement action against KPC for non-compliance to EMCA 1999 and other environmental regulations will be instituted.
DR. AYUB MACHARIA
AG. DIRECTOR GENERAL
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY.
