OREANDA-NEWS. On 02 July 2008 was announced, that the public discussions of the Phase II Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline Project started in the Khabarovsk Area on June 17 and were held in all of the six municipal districts of the region, on the territory of which the plan is to lay down a trunk pipeline. Some two hundreds of the area’s residents took part in the discussion. However, some of the environmentalists accuse the community in lack of social activity and believe that individual issues as part of Phase II Project need additional discussion.

According to Deputy President of the All-Russian Nature Preservation Society, an area’s organization, Mr. Vladimir Sidorov, it concerns the method of laying down the pipeline across the Amur River, safety of the Tunguska water field and the fire safety of the facility. The issues of environmental risks and compensations should be discussed once again.

Commenting on this announcement, The Eastern Pipeline expert portal notes that the environmentalists’ standpoint is not absolutely clear. As is known, based on the results of public hearings, all of the environmentalists’ recommendations and proposals are included into special minutes for subsequent taking them into account in the final version of design documents. Mr. Sidorov agrees with that. The same comments that are not included into the final minutes are recognized unsubstantiated and are not subject to further discussions.

The case is that the local environmentalists’ findings are not always comparable to research & development held by Transneft’s specialists in developing the route in terms of scale and quality and are often contrived. A bright illustration is, for instance, the requirement to lay down ESPO-2 using an alternative route that will allegedly enable to preserve the sanitary protection area of the Shkotovsky water intake facility and the Amur tiger habitat. During public discussion with designers, we found out that the proposed version, whereby the entire Phase II ESPO should pass from the village of Kirovsky to the town of Arseniev and through the village of Anuchino by the Arsenievka River to the Partizanskaya River valley and then to Nakhodka is a non-viable one in terms of geological and seismic parameters of the territories. In addition, if this route is taken, a risk for the Nakhodka water supply arises.

Wishes of residents and environmentalists under the ESPO-2 Project are taken in public reception rooms to be open in the Far East regions till mid-August. Transneft’s constructive dialogue with the community took place in Vladivostok. Based on the results of the discussion, a number of proposals to be further reviewed by the State Appraisal Committee were entered into the minutes. Firstly, the recommendations touched upon passing of the oil pipeline across the Strelkinov Crest that is a corridor for the Amur tiger migration to China. It is with respect to this section the designers will take a decision that will be the most suitable in terms of environmental safety. The Phoenix Fund proposal as to arranging for joint construction checkups with participation of the public was included into the protocol.  As concerns environmental efforts, it was proposed to consider the issue as to funding of design and creation of the area’s wildlife sanctuary near the Strelnikov Crest, the protective area of the Ussuriysky reserve,  and also the natural part on the Livadia Creat, The Eastern Oil Pipeline announces.