Environmental site assessment in the South of America

Environmental site assessment at power plants in Spain, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Peru and Brazil for Enel Power Generation.

CESI is developing, for some coal plants in Chile and Colombia, an Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), to define the environmental liabilities created by contamination of the subsoil and underground aquifers and surface waters. The development of the ESA is based on the requirements of the ASTM standard for Environmental Site Assessment – Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Phase 1 involves a desk study and assessing data from Enel’s subsoil investigations at the relevant plants, with reference to national and international benchmarks. It looks at the costs of the main technologies used to remediate contaminated land, dispose of industrial waste and treat contaminated groundwater onsite.

After assessing the knowledge gaps, CESI developed a second phase with field surveys to verify the level of contamination, with reference to relevant environmental regulations. If environmental regulations relating to soil, subsoil and groundwater contamination are not well-developed, we apply the best practices in force in Enel’s other markets to ensure a consistent approach across all the company’s plants.