PM clears air on Argyle environmental impact study

The cost of mitigating the environmental issues identified in the environmental impact study done for the Argyle International Airport has already been factored into the airport’s budget.{{more}}

This is according to Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who was responding to a question asked of him by Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace on Thursday, August 28, in parliament.

Eustace wanted to know when the government received the environmental impact study and the major impacts identified along with their mitigation cost.

As he animatedly embraced the three-volume study that was done by Kocks Consults, he likened the opposition to the biblical character ‘Doubting Thomas’ for doubting the existence of the study in recent media reports. Dr Gonsalves said that the study was received by the International Airport Development Company (IADC) on June 19, 2008 and was delivered to him on July 9.

He said that all the environmental issues were addressed by the study, including the runway usability, land reclamation and coastal development, the noise impact, the Yambou crossing and the cultural heritage issues.

According to Dr Gonsalves, because the designers of the airport runway were in communication with the consultants, several issues that were raised in the study were already factored into the design and costing for the airport.

One issue identified by the study is that the airport’s location on the Atlantic side of the island makes it susceptible to strong wave action, ocean currents, wind gusts, storm surges and hurricane waves.

This, he explained, has already been factored into the design, in that, the southern end of the runway (40 meters above sea level) slopes higher than the northern end (12 meters above sea level) , and the coastal protection necessary to combat the effects of these natural occurrences has already been budgeted to cost EC$9.5 million.

Regarding the crosswind study,Dr Gonsalves noted that while to the common man, Argyle is considered very windy, two and a half years of data collected and analyzed from the three weather stations installed in the airport zone, show the crosswind level to be easily within the required standards.

“A lot of people go out there (Argyle) for all sort of activities and they confuse breeze with wind,” he quipped.

“Under normal meteorological conditions, the critical wind speed volume has not reached the levels that can affect operation of even the smaller aircrafts…at this rate none of the smaller aircrafts that currently operate…will be affected by winds at Argyle.”

The Prime Minister however said that the environmental study recommended that wind data continue to be collected throughout the construction of the airport.

This is so that five year’s data will be collected so as to decide whether or not a short cross wind runway will be necessary.

This too, he said, has been budgeted for if it is deemed necessary. (KJ)