EAME’s recently completed $1.9 million Sealine Project in Iraq has been featured within the Environment Analyst. The article highlights the importance of having appropriate levels of security in order to work successfully within the region.

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EAME have recently completed the first key stage in a major Environmental Baseline Study for the Sealine Project in Iraq. The Sealine Project is the construction of a 48” pipeline corridor from the Fao Peninsula Bulk Oil Storage tank farm to the BOT and KAAT off-shore oil terminals. The Earth and Marine environmental scientists are engaged directly by the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) which is funding the project.

A key aspect of any major international funding arrangement is that the funders must ensure that the environmental and social impacts of the proposed project that is being funded are properly evaluated and that there is adequate monitoring of such impacts as the project develops. The fundamental first stage of this is the Environmental Baseline Study (EBS) which establishes the conditions that prevail prior to the main construction works. To that end EAME was commissioned to undertake a series of scientific and social studies in the project area over a 12 month period. These included:

• Seawater and sediment (sea-bed) sample collection and chemical analysis;
• Ecological surveys of fish, plankton, sea vegetation, sediment dwellers, land vegetation, insects, birds and mammals (including dolphins and whales);
• Sampling and analysis of soils and Groundwaters on the Fao Peninsula;
• Monitoring Noise and Air Quality;
• Oceanographic monitoring at BOT and KAAT;
• Meteorological Monitoring on Fao and on BOT;
• Marine Traffic and Land Traffic Surveys;
• Fisheries Activity Surveys; and
• Assessment of the Socio-economic conditions on Fao.

The surveys were carried out on four separate occasions over a 12 month period and eventually built up into a comprehensive dossier of the environmental and socio-economic conditions on the Fao Peninsula and off-shore area.