Pretoria - The Green Scorpions have found that EnviroServ Eastern Cape constructed and operated a storm water dam as well as the leachate treatment plant at Aloes without obtaining the required environmental authorisation and permit.
The discovery was made during the national Environmental Law Compliance campaign, which ran in October and November.
"The Green Scorpions found that EnviroServ constructed and operated a storm water dam and the leachate treatment plant at Aloes H: H Landfill Site without obtaining the required environmental authorisation and permit," said the Department of Environmental Affairs on Monday.
At other sites, the Green Scorpions found that construction has been completed or is proceeding at generally acceptable standards which are in compliance with the environmental legislations.
The deepening of the car terminal berth at the Transnet East London Port was completed in September and overall compliance was found to be acceptable.
However, the Green Scorpions noted that the required water quality comparison data for the estuary was still outstanding and the management of the dredged materials stockpile on site was inadequate.
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Working for Wetlands project, involving the construction of permanent structures for the rehabilitation of degraded wetlands at the Hogsback and Tsitsikamma wetland systems, had just commenced and no major non-compliances were found.
The Transnet projects at the Coega Industrial Development Zone involving the construction of the Port Control Building; two additional berths at the container terminals and an administrative craft basin as well as the construction of the deep water port on the Coega mouth river estuary are well underway.
No major non-compliances were identified and rehabilitation of the affected areas at the estuary is still to be conducted.
The Green Scorpions will this week proceed to Limpopo for the next leg of the campaign. In Limpopo, the inspections will take place at various Eskom projects at the Medupi Power Station and Eskom Spitskop substation in Limpopo.
It will also cover the Neotel optic fiber network project from Germiston to Cato Ridge, which goes through Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State to KwaZulu-Natal province.
The main objectives of the campaign are to monitor adherence to conditions stipulated in Environmental Authorisations; Environmental Management Plans and Waste Management Licenses, as well as to improve the general status of compliance within the regulated community through taking appropriate enforcement actions in the event of non-compliance.
All non-compliances detected during the inspections are currently being reviewed and will be met with appropriate enforcement action where necessary.
