ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION (NNPC) MEGA STATIONN AWKA, NIGERIA

Abstract

In this work, the Environmental Impact Assessment and Management of NigerIan National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mega station, Awka, Nigeria was carried out. The method adopted involved collection of Baseline Information, environment, preparation of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and assessment of effectiveness of the mitigation measures. Data for impact assessment of the Mega station, Awka, was generated using Overlay, Leopold matrix, Peterson matrix and Batelle Environmental Overlay technique, data on environmental factors were obtained through aerial photography, topography and land inventory map. The land use suitability and engineering feasibility of establishing the Mega station was determined based on a number of overlays. Impact of interactions between the Mega station developmental excavation and clearing and the environmental activities such as deforestation, land excavation and clearing and the environmental factors such as temperature, land rainfall, and soil, air and water qualities were determined using Leopold matrix technique through listing and matching these factors. Under Batelle technique, impact of human involvement in Mega station project was, categorized into ecological, economical, from which environmental physical, chemical, esthetical and socio quality indices were estimated, using a 0-1 scale function. Negative or positive impact of human involvement was determined based on this index. In Peterson matrix technique, ordinal scale was used to further evaluate the impact of the Mega station on the human activities and the environment, from which impacts such as risk were determined to be low, medium or high. The result on the mean and standard deviation analysis of the environmental baseline data on the meteorological errors (deviation) parameters considered, shows that the percentage of the variance and/or from the mean is not more than 10% on the average basis, hence the installation of a mega station in the study area is possible at a reduced cost and with minimal effect on the environment.