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SORSOGON
CITY—The
Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) is pursuing a new
geothermal-energy project within a vast forest area here
amid apprehensions by thousands of farm owners and
workers that it would dry up irrigation water for their
rice farms down the project site.
In fact,
the drilling of two steam wells undertaken about six
years ago by the PNOC for the project called Tanawon
Sector had already reduced the output of the
communal-irrigation system supplying water to over 530
hectares of riceland below the project site, Reynaldo
Jacusalem, president of one of the three irrigators’
association in the area, said over the weekend.
The
project is situated at a highly elevated site
overlooking 10 barangays on the western section of this
city. This cluster of barangays is considered the rice
granary here.
Cawayan River,
the main source of the area’s irrigation water, emanates
from the foot of the mountain covered by the project
site, Jacusalem said.
“These
ricelands from where we derive our livelihood have been
giving us substantial amount of rice yields since time
immemorial because of the good irrigation system in the
area. Its water output, however, had significantly
decreased since the drilling took place,” he said.
That
water-supply reduction had, in turn, been resulting in
lower rice production, Jacusalem said.
The
gradual disappearance of fishes, shrimps and other
freshwater species from rivers and creeks has been
highly noticeable, and he said it could be due to the
toxic chemicals discharged from the drilling site.
Citing
those negative effects to the local rice industry and to
the environment, the 1,000-strong irrigators’
associations in the area asked for the termination of
the project in a petition submitted to the PNOC and
local government authorities late last week.
“We do
not want to experience what happened to Tiwi, Albay,
where water on a major spring dried up several years ago
due to the operations of the Tiwi geothermal-energy
project,” they said in the petition.
Sorsogon
Vice Gov. Renato Laurinaria said an inquiry would be
conducted by the provincial legislative board to find
out if the claims of the farmers are valid as to warrant
a Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial council)
resolution calling for the termination of the project.
“Given a
choice between rice and power, we would prefer the
former over the later, particularly under the present
situation that our rice industry is being confronted by
a crisis,” Laurinaria said.
The
Tanawon project is an expansion of the 110-megawatt
BacMan (Bacon-Manito) Geothermal Power Field (BGPF)
located within a vast forest reservation whose area is
shared by this city and the municipality of Manito,
Albay.
BGPF was
developed and operated by PNOC-Energy Development Corp.
(EDC) for electrical-energy generation and started
commercial operations in 1983.
Part of
BGPF’s expansion program is to develop additional power
in the Tanawon sector, south of the BacMan areas. The
PNOC-EDC embarked on its initial development in 2000,
where two production wells were drilled through a joint
venture with Kyushu Electric Power Co. (Kyuden) of
Japan.
A report
presented by the PNOC-EDC to the proceedings of the
World Geothermal Congress in Antalya, Turkey, in April
2005, however, said “production wells in the Tanawon
sector of the BGPF were initially postulated to have
been damaged by mud after several problems were
encountered during drilling.”
Analysis
of the several pressure transient tests conducted in the
wells and correlation of the drilling and geoscientific
data confirmed the presence of formation damage caused
by drilling mud and established the wells as good
candidates for acid stimulation, the report said.
Because
of severe drilling problems like persistent fills, tight
spots and stuck-up drill pipes, the first well was
sidetracked and was prematurely completed at 2,050.5
meters Measured Depth (mMD). The programmed depth of the
well is 2700 mMD, the report said.
The
second production well was drilled as a big hole to
ensure successful intersection of its structural targets
because of drilling problems experienced in the first
well.
However,
the same drilling problems were encountered, which
prompted another sidetracking and premature termination
of drilling at 2611.8 mMD that is around 88 meters
shallower than targeted depth, it added.
Gerry
Bunao, BGPF spokesman, said two more wells would be
drilled on the area to complete the requirement for a
40-MW power-generating facility and the PNOC-EDC is
determined in pursuing the project as part of its
commitment to address the increasing power demand of the
Luzon Grid.
Bunao
dismissed claims by the irrigators as mere speculations,
as there is no scientific finding nor established fact
that geothermal power generation drains water resources
in a particular location.
The
Tanawon project does not discharge toxic chemicals to
cause the vanishing of freshwater fish species down its
site that the irrigators were claiming, he added. |
