Environmental Impact Assessment: Establishment Of Assessment Answer

Answer:

Introduction

Preamble

This chapter will focus on the need for the action to be developed in the study. This section will describe that desalination is a very integrated process that removes minerals and salt from the sea water for the use of human being. The study will develop a desalination plant in Subartha, Libya for providing fresh water to the people of Libya. The solar plant will provide the energy for the plant. This chapter will also be focused on the objective of the study.  It will demonstrate that environmental assessment minimizes the conditionality of the project.  Another thing that this chapter will discuss is the contribution of the environmental assessment for the project. It will demonstrate that Environmental assessment reduces the cost and delay of the project as alternative actions can be determined beforehand.

Need for the Action

Desalination plant plays a vital role in the development of human life. It is a process that removes minerals from saline water (Blesing and Pelekani 2015). More precisely, it can be desalination process removes salts as well as minerals from the seawater. Salt water is desalinated by desalination process that produces fresh water for the use of human consumption and irrigation. The majority of recent interest is strong to provide a cost effective way of providing fresh water to the human being. In the last decade, desalination became the widely distributed and it also has a long history in the Mediterranean and Middle East Sea (El-Sharkawyet al. 2014). The increasing of demanding of potable water can also be found in the Europe, United States, and Australia. Many countries adapt this technology for securing potable water for human consumption around the world. Along with recycled wastewater, desalination is one of the most used rainfall independent sources of water.

It is found that the primary source of water in Libya is from the ground. Thus, with the rise in population, the whole nation is constantly depending on the ground water. In the recent year, an artificial water reservoir has been developed in the Sabartha region, but that is the only source of water (Feinberg, Ramon and Hoek 2013). The biggest source of water is from the Mediterranean Sea, but the water is not consumable. Thus, it is the responsibility of ministry to take care of the water source. In this regards the best available option is to purify the sea water to make it consumable. Thus, a water desalination plant has been thought to implement in the Sabartha region. It is found that the area population is constantly increasing. Thus, with the implementation of sea water purification plant, there is a huge possibility of disrupting the biological balance. In this context, a desalination plant has been thought of to be installed in the Sabartha region. The desalination plant in Libya represents 1.4% in 2002 however the government planned to construct another several plant that located along the coastal line. With the technological advancement by desalination plant, it may bring many different pollutants which provide contaminated water for human and marine life. For this, Environmental Impact Assessment has to be ascertained to find out the impact of the desalination plant on the environment.

It is the government who needs to find out the several impacts on the environment that may happen due to the implementation of the desalination plant. It is quite sure that the region of Sabartha is mostly deserted. International Desalination Association surveyed that about 15988 desalination plants were currently under operation all over the world (Fosteret al. 2013). Those plants are producing 66.5 cubic meters of water to almost 300 million people. The largest amount of purified water from the desalination plant is produced in the North Africa and the Middle East (El Azharet al 2012). This amount of purified water is mainly coming from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arabic Emirates, and Libya. These kinds of desalination plants are primarily operating in deserted areas where there is less amount of pure water availability.

Solar power point will provide the energy that will produce potable water from the seawater in an integrated process (Khanet al. 2013). A large quantity of seawater is extracted from the by desalination and discharge hypersaline brine back to the marine environment. Marine environment issue is considered the second global concern that needs urgent focus and monitoring, although it is widely suggested that desalination plants have a significant effect on both physicochemical and ecological attributes of receiving marine environment. Modern desalination plant uses reverse osmosis system which important point to start transfer information about the adverse environment impact (Brauns 2012). Discharge of seawater back into marine environment has been the essential effect which increases the concern for marine community around discharge outlet. This study was performed for monitoring the quality of seawater which used for feeding desalination plant and determines the concentration of pollution by the chemical monitoring system.

The study also illustrates the effect of this technology on the marine organisms and environmental land. Despite of many positive offers, desalination system can provide concern that increase over the primary adverse impact on both the marine and soil environment. The potential issues are the emotion of air pollution and chemical discharge to the marine environment and the energy demand of processes. To ensure sustainable use of desalination plants, the effect of the primary plant should be mitigated and investigated using project and location (EIA) Environment Impact Assessment study. Both the impact and the benefit should be balanced on the scale of regional management plant. The essential environmental impact of desalination project should be mitigated, evaluated as far as possible as well as with alternative water supply. Hot spots of Marine pollution are considered to be the center of concentrated human activity like harbors, cities and industrial activity.

Objective of the Study

Environmental Impact Assessment is a process of evaluating the likely impact of a project on the environment (El-Emam and Dincer 2014). It also assesses the sustainability of the project and the concern of the environment for the sustainability of the project. The objective of the study is to ensure the rationality of the project and guarantee that the project is environmentally sustainable and sound. The objective of the study can also minimize the adverse effect of desalination and identify the process for improving the environment. This project offers the desalination process which is paramount for providing future water supply in Libya.

In order to be sustainable, the project should be relevant to the legislative requirement, expert knowledge, public involvement and international convention that mitigate the adverse effect of the project on biodiversity (Mabrouket al. 2013). The effluents of the seawater should be kept separate in such a place that is far away from the human habitat. Water effluents specifically cause the increase in the sea temperature that typically impact the organism in the discharged area.  Moreover, chlorination of cooling the water may introduce toxic substances in the seawater. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the type, size and location of the plant for desalination process (Altaee and Zaragoza 2014). Apart from this, fuel to be used is also a need to ascertain the impact of this plant on the environment.

The main objectives of EIA are:

text-align: justify;">•    To ensure the rationality of the project and guarantee that the project is environmentally sustainable and sound

•    To minimize the adverse effect of desalination and identify the process for improving the environment

•    To understand whether the project offers the desalination process which is very important for providing future water supply in Sabartha

Contribution of Action to the Need

The environmental process helps the project designer as well as the implementing agencies in addressing the issues of environment related to the project in a cost-effective and timely manner (Olwiget al. 2012). This process minimizes the chances of cancelation of the project as the key issues of the environment is analyzed beforehand and the project designer can take necessary action before the plant is introduced. EIA also reduces the conditionality of the project as the suitable steps can be taken or incorporated in the design of the project. It also helps in taking alternative action if the previous action fails. EIA is advantageous as it reduces cost and delay in the project that might occur due to unanticipated problems of the environment. Environmental analysis will also determine the scope of the project. The potentiality and flaws of the project can also be discovered in the environmental assessment (Huang, Voutchkov and Jiang 2013). Basically, this environmental study of the proposed project is intended to rationalize the process of an environmental management plan that leads to an improved quality of the environment as a result of this power station construction.

Location

The site of the project is located on the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea, which is in Sabartha city. There are several operating projects in Sabartha region, and this desalination plant will be another added project for water purification. The name of the project will be Sabratha Sea Water RO4 (SWRO-4) Project. This project will carry out fresh water to the whole town. Reverse Osmosis membrane technology will be used in this project. Following nominal net capacities: 75,000 m³/day net export of potable water Provisions shall be made for the future extension of the facility in a further Phase (SWRO-5).

Figure 1: Location of Desalination Plant

Figure 2: Location of Desalination Plant near Road

Legislation

The proposed desalination plant is located in the shoreline of Sabartha city. The plant will be developed by the contractor with regards to the Local Order 61/1991, which falls under the “Environmental Protection and Safety Section”. The environmental safety and health department of Libya municipality has expanded the control rules for environment, guidelines and standards for air, solid wastes, hazardous materials and noise control. The requirements are in dealt with “Federal Environmental Agency or Federal Environmental law would be dealt with penalties as per EHS rules”. The guidelines allow the authority to issue the following environmental permits”

Request information if the authority thinks so

Issue permits related to waste discharge, hazardous solid waste, domestic and trade waste

Request EIA report that contain relevant information

Request for information related to control activities for pollution

Request for issuing renewable “Operation Fitness Certificate (OFC)”

The owner of the desalination plant will use “Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO)” so that discharge of offensive and noxious substance to the environment is restricted. The substance will be investigated by the authority prior to the disposal. The authority will hudge substances that include vapors, gases, fume, grit, smoke, and solid and liquid wastes.

The Environment Health and Safety department of Libya municipality applied certain guidelines for smooth processing of desalination plant that falls under “Environmental Technical Guidelines (ETGs) which are given below:

ETG 53: “Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure” by municipality of Libya

ETG 1: Application of permits for waste discharge to land, sewer and marine

ETG 3: Heat Stress at workplace by Dubai Municipality

ETG 10: Guarding for ‘Dangerous Machinery’ by municipality of Libya

ETG 13: Waste water disposal from industrial area

Two most important EHS standards that will be applicable during the construction period and operation period of desalination plant are:

“Environmental Standard and Allowable Limits of Pollutants on Land, Water and Air environment (September, 2005) by Libya Municipality

“Final Air Pollution Law, 2007 by FEA”

Alternatives including the proposed action

Preamble

In this chapter, the several alternatives of water treatment for the region Sabartha City in Libya will be discussed. While discussing it must be kept in mind that the region is too much scarce in rainfall and amount of population is increasing. Alternatives such as rainwater harvesting, water preserver for homes and “Great Man-made River Management and Implementation Authority (GMRA)” and sea water desalination will be discussed. The most suitable approach will be identified for the location by highlighting the environmental consequences of alternatives in a comparative form. Further, the preferred project action from the alternatives will be discussed regarding its construction, operation and decommissioning at appropriate areas. Some of the most significant mitigation measures will be discussed as well.

Description of Alternatives

Rainwater Harvesting

Conservation of rainwater and preserving the amount in reservoirs is one of the most effective ways to water treatment. This process is one of the most suitable and cost beneficial methods that generally helps in independent water conservation. Rainwater harvesting is too much effective as individuals do not need to stay in touch with other sources of water (Manentiet al. 2013). This procedure includes conservation of rainfall in reservoirs and covering the portion as per the usage. Moreover, rainwater is the freshest water that can be conserved and thus requires very less treatment for consumption. This process is natural and reservoirs are filled automatically by rainfall.

On the other hand, it is empirical fact that rainwater can be only harvested at places where there is the massive downpour. The water tanks will be filled up at a time but with increased consumption, the limited source will be exhausted. If Sabartha is considered, then it can be said that the location is not too much close to the population just because of rainfall scarcity (Hamdy 2013). The area is mostly desert and with very limited rainfall. Thus, rainwater harvesting will not be a decent idea for water conservation. This area needs to find other sources of water management.

Water preserver at homes

Water preservers at homes are generally done by digging out water from the base. This is a manual process that can be easily done will very less capital. In this process, the land is dug out deep beneath until source of water is found. One such example is ‘Well’. This is a one-time process and individuals need to fetch water from inside the well as per requirement. This is an entirely manual process and requires very less money (Antipovaet al. 2013).

On the other hand, water preservers are too much limited to areas where water cannot be fetched after grave digging. At some places water level is very much deep beneath land and thus fresh water may not be dug out. This same case is for Sabartha. The water level is too much deep into the soil and thus well cannot be dug out to get fresh water (Stambouliet al. 2014). After fetching out water, it needs to be treated for desalination as the location Sabartha is very near to the sea.

“Great Man-made River Management and Implementation Authority (GMRA)”

By far the best water treatment procedure taken by Libya is GMRA (Abdudayem and Scott 2014). This is a man-made river reservoir and from there water supply is connected to the whole of Libya. GMRA generally pumps out water from the land bed. The location of Sabartha city is too much rich in fossils and precipitation of water from thousands of years. This amount of water has been found to satisfy the whole of Libya. This water plant is generating water by pipeline and water is pumped from the land beneath. This is a cost-efficient process and entirely artificial. One of the most adverse disadvantages of this procedure is that water is limited, and it is the non-renewable source. The amount of population is rising in Sabartha and hence, demand for fresh water will be increasing, which will result in more water fetching, thereby limiting the water available for future. Moreover, the location is mostly deserting, and hence, water must be kept for future. Thus, this alternative is not feasible any further.

Sewage treatment

One of the most effective water treatment methods is by sewage purification. With the increase in population, the amount of city sewage is constantly increasing in Sabartha. Most of the sewage are consisted of more than 50% water content. If the area is able to conserve this amount of water, then it does not need to depend on another water source. For sewage water treatment a separate plant has to be set up on the side of the city to deliver fresh water (Munoz and Becerril 2014). For set up of this plant, the amount of cost will be high enough. Moreover, the total waste from the city has to be concentrated on the particular waste treatment plant and for that, the traditional sewage tanks are to be connected and restructured to the treatment plant. This will require the huge amount of cost for the total change in the pipeline. Thus, an alternative treatment has to be selected.

Alternatives not rigorously explored and reasons

Some of the alternatives for water treatment are not been discussed in this project as those are not at all applicable for Sabartha.

Industrial water and wastewater treatment is not important as the amount of disposal are mainly concentrated on oil extraction (Shahabiet al. 2014). From such industry, water secretion is not to a great extent. Sabartha is near to oil extraction industry, and thus, water treatment from industries will not be fruitful. The amount of waste from the city is not to a great extent from where water can be extracted in Sabartha. Thus, this alternative is not explored.

Bioenergy sewage treatment by Omni-Processor is one of the best ways for water treatment in several developed cities (Gude, Gadhamshetty and Khandan 2014) but for Sabartha, the selection of bio-energy will take a lot of time. Biological decomposition will lead to water treatment, but as Sabartha is mostly desert, hence aerobic decomposition is not possible. The advanced technology is not yet feasible in Sabartha.

Some of the other specialized treatments are not taken into concern as this location is too much near to the Mediterranean Sea, from where the huge amount of water can be fetched. There will be the only requirement of installing new pipeline and desalination of sea water, which may be so much cost efficient than other alternatives.

Environmental consequences of alternatives in a comparative form

The environmental alternatives are given in the following table:

	Biology	Geology	Culture
Rainwater Harvesting	Birds, flora-fauna and cyanobacterialmats will not be affected Biological creatures can be given fresh water from time to time Due to low downpour satisfactory thirst mitigation will not be possible	Amount of rainfall is very less and so source is very limited No such possible impact on land and climate	Limited water consumption will help in thirst mitigation for people Ease and comfort of life at critical situation or emergency purpose
Water preserver at homes	No impact on biological system as no chemical and machinery used	No impact on climate as natural system is used	Sustainable water consumption Less pollution
“Great Man-made River Management and implementation Authority (GMRA)”	Plant pollution Stagnant water negative effect on wildlife	Noise pollution and air pollution from refinery Waste disposal	Lifestyle sustainability Solution for long term High electricity consumption
Sewage treatment	Smoke and carbon emission disrupting natural habitat	Noise pollution and air pollution from refinery Waste disposal	Lifestyle sustainability Solution for long term High electricity consumption

Table 1: Environmental alternatives

(Source: Zeiner et al. 2014)

Preferred project action

All the alternatives discussed earlier failed due to one or other reason, and thus, Desalination Process Plant has been selected for water treatment. The measures taken for this purpose is given below.

Figure 3: Projected Desalination Plant

Figure 4: Reverse Osmosis membrane

(Source:Al-Karaghouli and Kazmerski 2012)

Seawater Data

Seawater is to be used as the feed to the Desalination Plant. The supply of seawater shall be from the existing seawater supply canals. The seawater analysis is presented in Table 2. The returned brine stream is to be routed to the current seawater return canal, with a maximum temperature rise of 10°C.The protected salt will be returned to water finally.

Input: Seawater Analysis

Serial Number	Factor	Range
1	Depth of water intake	12 meters
2	Salinity	1002 ppm
3	Temperature	15 °C – 35 °C +/- 3°C
4	Density	1.027 Kg/l @ 25 °C
5	Turbidity	1.0-2.0 NTU
6	Conductivity	59,000 – 61,000 us/cm
7	Total Suspended Solids	10 – 30 mg/l
8	TDS	41,654 – 44,000 mg/l
9	PH	25 °C 8.1 – 8.3
10	M-Alkalinity	CaCO3 130 - 135 mg/l
11	Total Hardness	CaCO3 7,625 – 7,750 mg/l
		Ca++ 470 – 500 mg/l
		Mg++ 1,563 – 1,585 mg/l
		Na+ 13,000 – 13,165 mg/l
		K+ 458 – 473 mg/l
		Cl- 23,000 – 24,500 mg/l
		SO4-- 3,300 – 3,300 mg/l
12	Total Fe	10 – 12 ppb
		Cu 6 ppb
		CO2 4.4 – 7.0 mg/l
13	Residual Chlorine	Max. 2 ppm (up to 8ppm for 30 min every eight hours)
14	Mesh size of seawater screen	10 mm
15	Location of the seawater intake	On the Mediterranean Sea, is susceptible to seasonal Algaeblooms, and the seawater provided for use is regularly shock dosed with chlorine
16	Power	Solar energy will be used with reverse osmosis (RO) technology natural gas, heavy oil and diesel
17	Area of desalination plant size	2.5 square kilometers (open area)

Table 2: Seawater Composition

(Source: Blanco-Marigorta, Masi and Manfrida 2014)

Product Water data

The following product flow rates are required for export following the completion of SWRO-4:

Potable water: 75,000 m³/d. The Potable Water product shall meet the quality standards. The potable water quality is given in Table 2.3.

Output: Potable Water Product Quality

Serial Number	Factor	Range
1	Color	OB/UOB UOB
2	Smell / Odor	OB/UOB UOB
3	Temperature °C	20 ~ 45
4	Residual Chlorine ppm	0.2 ~ 0.5
5	Turbidity	NTU < 1.0
6	pH valueat 25°	8.0 ~ 9.0
7	Conductivity at 25°C	59,000 – 61,000 μS/cm
8	Total Dissolved Solids mg/l	50 ~ 80
9	P Alkalinity	CaCO3 mg/l
10	Total Alkalinity	CaCO3 mg/l 25 ~ 60
11	Carbonate	CaCO3 mg/l
12	Bicarbonate	CaCO3 mg/l 36 ~ 50
13	Total Hardness	CaCO3 mg/l 36 ~ 50
14	Calcium Hardness	CaCO3 mg/l 36 ~ 50
15	Calcium	Ca++ mg/l 14 ~ 20
16	Magnesium	Mg++ mg/l
17	Saturation Index	+0.0 ~ 0.3
18	THM’s (total mainly bromoform) μg/l	max 80
19	Chloride	Cl - mg/l < 18
20	Sulphate	SO4 mg/l < 18
21	Silica	SiO2 mg/l < 1.0
22	Iron	Fe+++ mg/l < 0.30
23	Copper	Cu++ mg/l < 1.0
24	Boron	B mg/l < 0.5
25	Total Coliform	MPN/100 ml Nil
26	Fecal Coliform	MFC/100 ml Nil

Table 3: Potable Water Product Quality

(Source: Blancoet al. 2013)

Sea Water Intake and Distribution

The seawater intake shall utilize the existing seawater intake lines, but all other equipment will be new. The intake system will consist of the following new items:

New seawater inlet tank sized for Sea Water Reverse Osmosis -4 and Sea Water Reverse Osmosis -5 capacity will be installed to provide a 30-minute buffer capacity of the incoming seawater

Inlet tank will allow the feed lines to be closed during periods of high chlorine shock dosing

New seawater distribution pumps shall be provided to distribute the seawater to the RO Package (pre-treatment section)

Two spare pump bays shall be provided for the SWRO-5 pumps

New sand pump shall be provided to remove any sand/silt build up from the tank

All instruments and control valves on the seawater inlet lines shall be new

Desalination System

The desalinated unit will cover the post water treatment package that will produce fresh water for exporting. The reverse osmosis membrane procedure will be used up for water purification (Yanet al. 2013). The fundamental fact is the removal of chlorine from saline water and for that Sodium Bisulphite will be utilized. Reverse Osmosis membrane will filter out the chlorine from salt water. The project forecasts that export of water will be of 75,000 m³/d from the SWRO-4 plant. The capability of the desalination plant will be increased by the contractor for domestic water export all over the city. Sea water desalination system is shown in Appendix A.

Water Post Treatment and Storage

Treatment of water will be done by providing water post treatment package. The water will be brought to the lime slurry in the presence of carbon dioxide in order to add minerals to the water, in line with the potable water specification (Portilloet al. 2014).

After the post-treatment, chlorine from the gaseous chlorination package will be dosed into the water at the inlet to the chlorine contact tank. 0.5 mg / L chlorine concentration to 0.2 mg / L chlorine level in order to achieve a contact time of 30 minutes is allowed for chlorine and water. Chlorine contact tank shall be sized for SWRO -4 SWRO -5 capacities. Portable water, new potable water transfer pump on the existing fresh water tanks stand at Camp 7 to 3 X 50% pumped the chlorine contact tank. Additional pump bays for two SWRO -5 pumps shall be provided.

Four of potable water storage tanks on the site and the existing tank seven tanks will be utilized. The two positions to allow for a total storage volume of about seven days’ storage shall consist of the 2km north of the camp. Also, the distribution of potable water from the tank (Pumping Station East) exists and is outside the scope of this project.

Figure 5: Process Flow Diagram of MSF With Brine Circulation

(Source: Garciaet al. 2014)

Figure 6: Sea Water intake and distribution

(Source: Liu, Sheu and Tseng 2013)

Major Mitigation Measures

Noise Emission

Amount of noise emission will have to be lowered in the following ways:

•    Air compressors to be equipped with air silencers

•    Outdoor equipment designed with noise limit of 85 dB(A) at stance of one meter

•    Workers to have ear protection (Kurihara and Hanakawa 2013)

Flora and Fauna

Impacts on Flora and Fauna will have to be lowered in the following ways:

•    Vehicles to be restricted in boundary restricted to enter surrounding site land and limited to access roads

•    Noise will be dissipated in wide surrounding and disturbance will be localized (Huang, Voutchkov and Jiang 2013)

Visual Impact

Visual will have to be lowered in the following ways:

•    Project boundary will be covered with green trees assuring improved aesthetic shield with industrial structure

•    This plantation will even lower noise (Sahooet al. 2015)

Solid waste Impact

Solid waste Impact will have to be lowered in the following ways:

•    Waste will be carried out by licensed waste contractor, and municipal authority will audit waste disposal procedure

•    Waste types will be integrated, collected and stored in facilities before release to “off-site disposal facilities.”

•    Waste related consignments will be recorded according to type before disposal

•    Disposal facilities, management systems, and area storage standards will be agreed with parties (Nget al. 2014)

Health and safety

Health and security impact will have to be lowered in the following ways:

•    Operational health and safety plan will include workforce training

•    Chemical handling and protection equipment training will be given

•    Marking hazard zones and hazard symbols

•    Vapor detection equipment installation (Anget al. 2015)

Description of environment to be affected, including background state

Preamble

This chapter will be focused on the impact of the desalination process on the environment and its background state. It can be seen from this chapter that the effluents from the desalination process will badly impact the birds coming in this country during the migration time. The desalination plant will also affect the noise level of the sea coast that will occur from the turbine and other things. The chapter will also explain that the desalination process will impact the water and air of the plant area. However, safety measures will also be taken for mitigating the dangerous effects of the desalination plant.

Biological environment to be affected

General

As Sabartha has a desert climate, so there is only few vegetation in the areas of the project. However, the coastal region is irrigated by the water produced by the desalination process of sea water or by the reused wastewater (Roveriet al. 2014). The Mediterranean coast of the country in Arab does not mostly vary in according to the geomorphologic structure. There is tremendous diversity in the in the biotopes. Some of them are the international interest of nature protection. The utilization of natural resources of Marine is relevant to the biological context. The Mediterranean Sea is very product as their there is an enormous scope of fishery and Shrimp. Although the fishery is small within the gross domestic product of the country, it supplies for the high quality food and its variety. The number of the modern and traditional fishery is underestimated due to the desalination plant. There is great conflict between the interest of fishery and the desalination plant.

Effects on Birds

The Mediterranean coast is highly accessible for the important areas of birds. In fact, Libyan coast has the extraordinary function for birds.  This coast has special flyways for Waders as well as other species that are coming from African to West Asia or vice versa. The birds mainly occur during the month April-May and July-November. It has been recorded that more than 250000 waders come to this coast at one time during the migration period (Rhema and Miliszewska 2012). Due to the effluents of the desalinated water, the climate of the coast might be polluted. This polluted environment will affect breathing system of the birds. The sighting of the bird will be reduced due to the implementation desalination plant. The coast is also famous for the resting and feeding place for birds. The birds tend to dependent on the intertidal mudflats of the sea all over the year. As the ecosystem will be misbalanced for the implementation of the desalination plant, the birds will find it hard to have this nutritious food.

Fauna, Wildlife

The various animals that are seen in Libya are camels, goats, and sheep.  Indigenous Fauna Ibex and Arabian Leopard but sighting of this animals are very rare (Gleick and Heberger 2014). Another desert life that is included in this area is the sand cat, desert hare, sand fox, snakes, and geckos. There is no wild life presented in the area where the project will be implemented. Therefore, wildlife will not be impacted by the desalination plant.

Affected on noise level

Noise from the desalination plant will be generated in operation level. The main noise emitters will be pumps, turbines, and compressors. This desalination plant will be designed by ensuring the noise standards rules of Libya. Appropriate acoustics enclosure would be installed in order to minimize the noise level of the project site and its background state. The level of noise emitting from the compressor and pump will be less than 85 dB at a distance of 1.0 m. For predicting the increasing level of noise, the industry will create noise modeling program (Sternberg 2015). This model does not take background noise into consideration. The assumed noise level at the boundary of the desalination plant at different level is shown below:

Sr. No	Direction	Levels of noise dB
1	W	50
2	NW	48
3	E	50
4	SE	48
5	N	50
6	NE	52
7	S	48
8	SW	48

Table 4: Noise level at the boundary of the desalination plant

The assumed maximum level of noise will be occurred at the west boundary of the sea side. The level of noise will fall below 46 dB at the distance of two hundred metre from the plant boundary. In the other 3 side of the boundary the existing plant will subsist.

The impact rating of the noise level is shown below:

Impact Rating	Noise level
Nature of the impact	Adverse
Likelihood of occurrence	High
Severity of impact	Low
Duration of impact	Long time
consequence of impact	Insignificant
Impacted Area	Localized

Table 5: Impact rating of noise level

Figure 7: Noise Dispersion Contours

Affected Cultural Heritage

The emission of NOx gas might have an adverse effect on the cultural heritage of Libya as the gas has corrosive nature. However, the desalination plant would be fired by the help of natural gas during the normal operation of the plant. The emission of NOx will be reduced with the assistance of Low NOx burning chamber. The maximum predicted NOx affected area will be 1 km far from the desalination plant. The noise level will not also change that much within the area away from 500 m from the desalination plant. There is no such cultural heritage in Libya within 1 km from the plant (Shirazi and Akbari 2012). Therefore, Cultural heritage will not be affected so much by this plant.

Impact Rating	Cultural heritage
Nature of Impact	Adverse
Impacted area	Localized
Severity of impact	Low
Likelihood of occurrence	Low
Duration of Impact	Long time
Consequence of Impact	Insignificant

Table 6: Impact Rating of Cultural Heritage

Affected Solid Waste

While settling the tank of potable water desalination plant, suspended and dissolved solids will be settled at the base which will in sludge form. This sludge form will be removed and vacant from the tank and will be taken in the sludge bed that will be established in the premises of the desalination plant. This sludge will be non-hazardous in nature and no adverse effect will be created on the environment. The water of sea will first be screened for removing the debris. The collected debris will be taken in the skip and it will be sent for disposing by authorized transporters towards the disposal sites (Alghariani 2013). Consequently, the effect on the surrounding will be very insignificant.

Impact Rating	Solid Waste
Nature of Impact	Adverse
Likelihood of occurrence	High
Duration of impact	Long time
Severity of impact	Low
Consequence of Impact	Minor

Table 7: Impact rating of Solid waste

Affected Thermal condition

The seawater is desalinated for removing the minerals and salt from the water that is later used as fresh water for the human being. In order to do this discharge of temperature of the seawater is necessary (van der Merweet al. 2014). It can heat the sea water of the sea. This project will surly comply with the temperature standard of the sea water. The small change in the water of sea should not the major concern of the environment of marine.

Impact rating	Brine of Plant
Nature of impact	Adverse
Impacted Area	Localized
Duration of Impact	Long term
Severity of Impact	Low
Likelihood of Occurrence	High
Consequence of Impact	Minor

Table 8: Impact rating of Thermal

Affected health of the workmen

During the construction process, the health of the worker may be affected by the disturbance and irritation causing from the desalination process. The effluents coming from the seawater may badly impact the health of the workers. The recommended project has taken all the safety measure that needs to take into consideration for the safety of the workers. During the work of erection, overhead lines that are parallel to the hot lines may cause damage to the workers (Pérez-Gonzálezet al. 2012). The safety measures have been taken into consideration by setting horizontal and vertical clearance line between the heated lines.  Just like heated line special measures will also be taken into consideration for the road, telephone crossing, and power line. HSE managers and environmental consultants will take care of their responsibilities (Appendix G).

Affected air quality

There will be six stacks of the power plant and two stakes (Appendix D) in the desalination plant which will be considered as the source of gaseous emission. Impact on the air quality will occur during the construction phase of the desalination plant for grading earthwork, leveling sites, and foundation work (Darwish, Hassabou and Shomar 2013). Fugitive dust is the prime thing that will be emitted from the desalination plant during its construction phase. Vehicular emission and another emission from the equipment run by diesel will contribute to the highly concentrated gaseous pollutants like Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxide, and Hydrocarbon.

However, the impact on the air will be confined and will try to be reduced outside of boundaries of the plant. This impact will be temporary.

Impact Rating	Air Quality
Nature of the impact	Adverse
Likelihood of occurrence	Low
Severity of Impact	Very Low
Impacted area	Localized
Duration of Impact	Short time
Consequence of impact	Insignificant

Table 9: Impact Rating of Air Quality

Affect on water

The construction work of the desalination process will mainly be consisted of assembly, fabrication and erection where the requirement of water will be low. The prime source of water pollution will be the loose soil in the construction site of the desalination plant. Shift sanitary process will be implemented by the industry for disposing the sanitary wastage at the workplace (Peñate and García-Rodríguez 2012). The background wastewater will be collected in the tanker and will be disposed as per the legislation of Libya. Sea Water Quality test parameters are given in Appendix E.

Impact rating	Water Quality
Nature of Impact	Adverse
Likelihood of the occurrence	Low
Duration of the impact	Short time
Severity of the impact	Very Low
Impacted area	Localized
Consequence of Impact	Insignificant

Table 10: Impact Rating on Water

Affect on Intertidal and subtotal benthic ecology

The benthic ecology of the area will be affected but not to a great extent. The zooplankton creatures will be affected, as the water will be slightly chlorinated near the shore. The habitats will be affected due to brine disposal but not to a great extent. The purification system will dissolve poisonous wastes within itself and a large portion will be disposed off in remote areas but not in the sea. As water level will differ at intertidal stages, the chlorinated poisonous water may mix with sea water, but the percentage will be very less. This may affect the natural habitat but the degree will be very less.

Marine mammals

Marine mammals, which include seals, whales, dolphins, porpoises, manatees, dugongs, marine otters, and walruses, form a diverse group of species that rely on the ocean for their existence. The considerable effect of chlorination will be very less and as a result, the impact on mammals is very less. At the construction phase, the impact will be very low, but at the operation phase, the impact will be considerably higher. The amount of whales and manatees are of huge in number and hence, they will be more affected.

Tidal Processes

The sedimentation at the time of tide, will mix with chlorine and brine that gets leaked out from the plant at the operation phase. During high tide, water level with raise its height and hence chlorinated sand will mix up with the seawater, which will affect in the marine mammals. At present, the area is of bare sand with numerous jellyfishes, which will be surely affected, as the immunity system of such species is very weak at the operational phase of desalination plant.

Environmental Consequences

Preamble

In this chapter, environmental consequences regarding implementation of desalination plant will be discussed. Direct and indirect impact of plant operation will be discussed. Possibility of conflicts at local and national level will be identified. Sources of energy and natural resource will be discussed. Mitigation measures for significant measures will be discussed further and monitoring plan for mitigation measure will be formulated.

Direct Impact of Desalination process and its significance     

Factor	Impact	Significance
Biological	Bird- Effluents emitted from the desalination plant may cause breathing problem to the birds. Fish- The health of the fish may be affected and it will disrupt the larva of the fishes. Wild life- It will limit the space of the wild life.	Reduce the migration of bird from different country during migration period. Reduce the growth and development of the fishes. Wild life will be harassed. It will also reduce the breeding system of the animal.
Cultural Heritage	This process may destroy the eye-soothing feature of the cultural heritage as the wind of the desalination plant area is affected by corrosion.	Reduce enchanting sight of the cultural heritage. Reduce the scope of further establishment of any cultural heritage in the desalination plant area.
Landscape	Desalination process may increase the chance of the sand to be polluted by the bacteria from the disposal of the plant. Solid waste may reduce the productivity of the land to produce any corp.	Natural corps production will be limited. Number of tourist coming to the coast area will be limited.
Employees	The employee may get many chances to be employed in different position of the desalination industry.	Many new candidates from different country may get chance to have a job in their career life. Many people might get a scope of earning for their life.
Sea Grass and Algal Ecosystem	Microalgae and sea grass are sensitive to the impact of the desalination process. It increases the hyper-saline level of the seawater that is absorbed by the sea bed and in turn impacts the sea grass.	It reduces the survival scope of the sea grass and Microalgae. It in turn also destroys the coral reef ecosystem of the sea.

Table 11: Direct Impact of desalination process and impact

Indirect Impact and Consequences

Serial number	Factor	Impact	Consequences		Mitigation
1	Coastal protection	Coast will be under protection of government but unidentified impact such as liquor disposal to sea will not be controlled	Change in natural habitat of sea creatures Loss in plankton’s lifestyle Change in marine ecosystem High sediments on sea coasts		Cannot be mitigated by the government. Sediments can be reduced but will not be stopped.
2	Commercial navigation	Highway route will not be changed but existing houses will be uprooted. Commercial lifestyle will be dense after 2.5 km radius from the plant location	Construction Phase	Operational Phase	The highway route will not be mitigated as the construction phase will be for 3 years within which some lifestyle commercial navigation will be changed
			Some of the local land routes will be stopped and protected under desalination plant area	High concentration of commercial lifestyle and several sub-routes in beyond 2.5 radius area
3	Landscape and visual amenity	Much amount of landscape will not be impacted as just 2.5 km radius area will be under impact beyond which there will be full lifestyle	Much of the land is for fishermen and ferries who will be under impact and thus after uprooting, the landscape will be bare There will be considerable biological impact and very less presence of birds and animals		Impact of visual will not be mitigated and in the construction phase the impact will be less but in operational phase impact will be higher
4	Socio-economic	Social life of fishermen will be changed. Economy will be changed and rise from past	Fishermen will start working in plant pipeline for giving occupation Economy will rise as higher concentration of population from rural areas will be concentrated		For sustainable job, fishermen will be given opportunity to work in pipeline department
5	Transport	Only the highway will be open throughout the construction phase and all the other subways will be closed permanently so that no lifestyle is permitted	Only interstate vehicles will be permitted throughout the highway		After the operational phase, some sub routes will be opened for proceeding towards city

Table 12: Indirect Impact of Desalination Plant

Conflicts at local and national level

The Sabartha region gets part of its potable water from GMRA. With the implementation of the SWRO-4 desalination plant, there might be a conflict at the local level. This is because the desalination plant will be able to deliver more amount of water than GMRA and thus people will try to undertake services from desalination pump. This will mostly affect the GMRA plant and a time will come when much of its sewage refineries cease. This will rise to local conflict. Though both of the plants will be under government, still there will be a loss of the job in GMRA. On the other hand, national level conflicts will also arise. Libya falls into the boundary region of Arab and Africa and thus some of the compliances may come from Arab (Shahabiet al. 2014). Moreover, much of the people of Sabratha are mixed with both cultures of Africa, and Arab and thus Arabian people may try to interfere in the construction stage of the plant.

Energy requirements and sustainability

For the operation of SWRO plant, the primary source of energy will be solar power. The other sources are natural gas (Appendix B), heavy oil, and diesel (Appendix C). In consideration of sustainability, the solar power has been used so that energy is not wasted. Moreover, there is a scarcity of electricity generation in Sabartha, and thus, a high amount of power may be consumed during the construction phase. On the other hand, there is a plenty of natural gas and oil source, which can be used for construction (Shahabi, McHugh and Ho 2015). Machinery will be utilized that can run on diesel fuel along with power generated from solar energy. Photo-voltaic cells in the huge panel will be exposed at the shore from where electricity will be generated. The semi-permeable membrane will be utilized for energy consumption that is reverse osmosis. This will help in instant water purification, and chlorine will be decapitated. Such technology will assist in reducing cost and even there will be very less environmental degradation. Moreover, solar power is the renewable source of energy, and hence, this will be the most environment-friendly method.

Figure 8: Solar Panel for Desalination Plant

Natural resource requirements

The most required natural resource is sea water. Desalination process will purify the water. The whole plant is operated by electronically by solar cells. In order to be environmentally viable and less environmental degradation, the power consumption will be from sunlight (Salcedoet al. 2012). The direct exposure of solar cells will store massive amount energy, which will be processed to run the whole plant. Chlorine will be required in huge amount as well that will serve as the semi-permeable membrane for water purification. The land will be the other requirement that will cover the whole area near to sea exposure.

Historical culture and design

The location near to coast is mainly the livelihood of fishermen and ferries (Kurihara and Hanakawa 2013). With the implementation of such desalination plant, the livelihood of the people will be changed. Those people will be shifted to another location by the government, but they will not have the proper source of income later. Thus, it though has been considered to engage the people in pipeline construction for potable water delivery, but they will lose their traditional source of income.

Brine disposal due to the desalination process may have a heavy impact on the “dissolved oxygen” of seawater (Ibáñezet al. 2012). Dissolved Oxygen may be inversely proportional to the salinity of the seawater. Thus, it leads to decreasing dissolved oxygen that results in Hypoxia. Hypoxia is a kind of condition that can lead to low-level dissolved oxygen and can have harm on the aquatic organism. The high amount of alkalinity is also a significant impact on the desalination plant. It increases the amount of calcium carbonate and calcium sulphate on the sweater to level twice than the average level. PH range of marine environment is also changing due to the discharge of effluents from the desalination process. Desalination plant may also have a major impact on the cultural heritage of the Libya. As the air of the environment may get polluted, due to the acid emitting from the desalination process, it may harm the architecture of the cultural heritage. Especially this desalination process impacts the health of the fish in the sea regarding health injury and causes deterioration of their growth as well as health. Hence, the historical culture surrounding an area of the 2.5km radius will not have any lifestyle after the implementation of the plant.

Monitoring plan for mitigation measures

The total monitoring plan will be divided into two parts:

Construction period (table 4.1)

Operation period (table 4.2)

Serial number	Environmental attributes	Locations	Parameters	Frequency
1	Ambient air quality	2 locations	Heavy Metals, Ozone	Quarterly
		3 locations	NOX, SO2, CO, SPM	24 hourly twice a week
2	Ambient noise	5 locations for ambient noise level	Leq 24 hr continuous with hourly Leq	Once in every year
	Industrial noise	5 locations plant equipment	Leq	Once in every year
3	Water quality	2 locations	Ammonical nitrogen, nitrate, total phosphorous, nitrite, bacteria (Coliforms), chlorophyll a, suspended solids, temperature, pH, Salinity,	Monthly once
4	Sanitary effluent	1 Location	BOD, DO and TTS	Disposal time
5	Solid waste	1 location	Physicochemical	Disposal time
6	Sediment quality	3 locations	Petroleum hydrocarbons, total Phosphorous and Organic carbon, selected metals- Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd,Al, Cr, Mn and Hg	Quarterly during construction phase
7	Ecology	3 locations	Population and faunalgroups, Macro benthic biomass Faunalgroups and biomass and Zooplankton biomass Populationfaunalgroups and Phytoplankton biomass	Monthly during construction phase
8	Occupational Health and Safety	Workers in possibly perilous workplaces	Health status	Once in a year

Table 14: Monitoring Plan for Construction Period
 

Serial Number	Environmental attributes	Locations	Parameters	Frequency
1	Stack Emissions	Each Unit	NOX	Continuous
2	Ambient air quality	3 locations	CO, SPM, NOX, SO2	Once in a week 24 hour
3	Water quality	3 locations	BOD, suspended solids, total nitrogen, temperature, pH, DO, salinity, phosphorous, Ammonical, Nitrogen, bacteria (Coliforms), nitrate, nitrite, chlorophyll a	Quarterly once
4	Sanitary effluent	1 location	TSS, DO and BOD	Disposal time
	Plant effluents	1 location	Total Residual Chlorine, TSS, TDS,pH, Temperature, Oil and Grease	Disposal time
5	Sediment quality	3 locations	Petroleum hydrocarbons and selected metals-Cr, Mn, Al, Zn, Cd, Pb, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Hg	Twice in a year
6	Ambient noise	4 locations	Leq 24 hr continuous with hourly Leq	Once in year
	Industrial noise	6 locations	Leq	Once in six months
7	Ecology	3 locations	Population and faunalgroups, Macro benthic biomass Faunalgroups and biomass and Zooplankton biomass Populationfaunalgroups, macro-benthos biomass and Phytoplankton biomass (Appendix F)	Quarterly once
8	Occupational Health and Safety	Workers in possibly perilous workplaces	Health status	Once in a year

Table 15: Monitoring Plan for Operation Period

Summary

The desalination plant will have some impact on the environment including its background states. The sea coast of Libya was famous for the different types of birds that come from the different country during the migration period. The effluents occurred from the desalination process will cause breathing problem to the birds. Therefore, the ratio of birds coming from the different country will be reduced after implementing this plant. Noise from the desalination plant will be generated at the operation level of the plant. The noise will occur from the turbine and other things. The emission of NOx gas might adversely affect the cultural heritage of Libya due to its corrosion nature. But it has been found that there is no such kind of famous heritage near the desalination plant. Therefore, not much cultural heritage will be affected by this plant. The solid waste coming from the tank of potable water may be hazardous to the environment and its background states. But this sludge will be taken into a sludge bed for disposal. Therefore, the impact of solid waste will be reduced. The temperature generated for removing the minerals and salt from the seawater can increase the temperature of sea water. The fisheries can be negatively affected by the desalination plant.

During the work of erection, workers may badly be impacted by the overhead line that is parallel to the heated lines. Vertical and horizontal conductors will be established during the erection process for taking safety measures of the health of the workers. Impact on the quality of the Air will occur in the construction phase of the desalination plant. Primarily, the emission of fugitive dust will affect the quality of the air. Other gasses will also be emitted from the equipment run by the diesel. Vehicular emission and other emissions from this equipment will highly contribute to the gaseous pollutant like Hydrocarbons, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen oxide. However, this impact will be temporary. Marine water quality is already the grave concern for the human being due to it pollution from the several plants. The ambient condition of the water of the ocean is 35-degree centigrade, but the temperature generated from several plants increase this temperature to 7-8 degree centigrade above the ambient temperature. As the proposed project of desalinated plant will be based on the solar energy, the heat generated from the plant will be small, and it will affect the temperature of the sea in a lower ratio. The source of water pollution will be the loose soil at the construction site of the Desalinated plant. The industry will implement the sanitary process for reducing the sanitary wastage of the plant site.

Cumulative / in-combination effects

One of the major potential impacts of this desalination plant is thermal pollution that occurs due to the discharge of Brine in the sweater. It increases the temperature of the seawater. It mismatches the natural balance of marine flora and fauna spices due to the respond of changing temperature of the seawater. The temperature of discharged brine water is quite higher than the ambient temperature of the seawater. Desalination process increases the temperature of the seawater more than the process of reverse osmosis process. Generally, the temperature of the seawater varies between 10 degrees Centigrade and 25 degrees Centigrade, but the disposal of brine increases this temperature to 60 degrees Centigrade and 40 degrees Centigrade. Extensive discharge of desalination effluents constitutes hyper-saline layer that tends to sink towards the seabed to a large extent and will negatively affect the marine biota. Change in the salinity can slowly affect the propagation activity of the species of the marine that reduces the development and growth of the marine species. Larval stages are imperative for any species of the seawater and the changes in the salinity can completely disrupt this period of the larval stage. Although marine species are familiar with the increase in the salinity of the seawater, sudden augmentation in the seawater due to heavy salinity cannot be tolerated by them.

The discharge of brine water in the relatively stagnant and shallow coastal area such as harbor and bay of the sea may have the negative effect on the ecology of the marine. Unlimited amount of brine disposal in the sheltered harbor and bay might cause serious effects on the habitats of Marine environment. Oily wastewater from the service area of the power plant can be treated as the effluent that can harm the health the safety of habitats of the Sabartha of Libya. A noise pollution can also be generated by the noise generating equipment like pump during pumping of brine and seawater. Chlorine generated from the desalination process may pollute the water quality of the seawater. Discharged brine may contain the low concentration of metal ions that may result from corrosion of nickel, copper, chromium and iron. However new power plan which will be created in the Sabartha will create many new employment opportunities for the qualified employees. On the other hand, it is also true that the people who are engaged in the fishery will be underestimated by this desalination process, as the increasing temperature of the seawater will harm the health and safety of fish in the sea.

Issue to be resolved

Temperature

The temperature issue should be solved in the desalination process as it highly impacts the fishery and habitats of the coastal area. The temperature of the sea is increased by the thermal effect of the desalination process.  However, if reverse osmosis plan is used then this issue can be resolved to a somewhat greater extent as the temperature in this process remain to 1 degree nearer to the ambient temperature of seawater.

Brine disposal

Brine disposal increases the hyper-saline layer that is absorbed to the seabed. It negatively harms the larval stage of the Marine habitats.  However, if the saline is disposed of via evaporation plant, land application and good deep injection and solar energy plant, it will have a less effect on the seawater.

Heavy metal

This is one of the significant issues that can be seen in the process of the desalination process. The waste brine often contains heavy metal that may result in corrosion on the surface of the remote place of the plant. However, this issue can be resolved by deposing this metal far away from the plant area because this may profoundly affect the cultural heritage of the plant site.

Lack of knowledge

It is very vital for that the personnel have adequate practical and theoretical knowledge of physical science and chemical science. In the recommended process it can be seen that there is a lack of competent chemical engineer for chemical conditioning and diagnostic control. For the successful operation and monitoring of pumping filter, there should be competent electrician and instrument engineers, but the project lacks a sufficient number of electric engineers for controlling he pimping filter that may cause noise pollution in the environment. As the project will be start-up project, therefore there will not be sufficient training program for the employee that can enhance their skills in minimizing the adverse effect of the desalination process.

Summary CV

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