Environmental Expertise

All foreseeable hazards with potential environmental implications has grown more stringent over the years.  This has necessitated for environment risk reviews to be carried out to ensure the operations of any facility is within environmental acceptance criteria or targets.  Typically, this will be carried out through an Environmental Hazard Identification (ENVID), which is performed in a similar manner as a HAZID review, but with focus to environment hazards.

Key environmental considerations that are directly relevant to the selection of an appropriate design, equipment selection, construction techniques and operations includes the following:

• Water quality – salinity, temperature, biochemical oxygen demand, trace inorganics including metals, organics (including sewage and oil), corrosion inhibitors, turbidity and suspended sediment. All of these factors can have significant impacts on marine life
• Physical disturbance – sedimentation, physical disturbance (anchors, vessel collision, wave impact), burial by sediment
• Water depth, temperature, currents and circulation patterns. Disturbance in any of these parameters or systems can adversely affect marine communities
• Light, noise
• Atmospheric depositions – particulates, dust, aerosols and emissions such as climate-change gases and nitrogen and sulphur oxides
• Oil spills (separate immiscible phase organic liquids, including diesel, bunker fuel, lubricants, greases, production fluids, solvents and degreasers)
• Heat – ecosystems are typically quite sensitive to changes in water temperature.

Synergen^OG together with their environment specialist/expert partners have the capability to carry out studies associated environmental hazards.