DENR still probing possible environmental impact of PAREx

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is still investigating the potential impact of the contentious Pasig River Expressway (PAREx), said DENR Secretary Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga.

The PAREx project has drawn criticism from green groups worried about its possible negative environmental impact on the community. The project still needs an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) from the DENR before it can push through.

“What we’re trying to do is evaluate this issue called the cumulative impact, and this is the same approach that we’re taking with the various ECCs that have been given in areas where there are multiple projects that are in a single ecosystem,” said Loyzaga during a press briefing.

( What’s cumulative impact? The United States Environmental Protection Agency gives a lot of weight to cumulative effects, which show that damage to the environment can be caused by more than one thing at the same time. Most of the time, it is a collection of smaller actions that, when added up, have a bigger effect on the world.

In the mining business, for example, a group of mines that are close together may have a bigger effect than the sum of their individual effects. Now that regulatory agencies are more aware of how effects add up, they are giving Environment Compliance Certificates (ECCs) for shared environments more thought. So, this approach encourages long-term growth while reducing bad effects on the environment. – abc

sources: “Cumulative Impact Assessment: A Tool for Sustainable Development” by Barry Sadler and Mary-Ellen Tyler, published in Environmental Impact Assessment Review in 2005. 2. “Cumulative Impact Assessment: Scientific Perspectives on Marine Environmental Management” edited by J. E. Vermaat, J. C. J. M. van den Bergh, and J. G. M. Roovers, published by Springer in 2013. 3. “Cumulative Effects Assessment in Canada: From Concept to Practice” by Brenda Heelan Powell and John Pomeroy, published in Environmental Reviews in 2011)

According to the environment chief, the DENR has no timeline for issuing an ECC. She said that she would state the matter “possibly next week.”

“There is no timeframe. The investigation is ongoing in terms of the cumulative impact,” she said.

San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang had previously defended his company’s  P95-billion project, saying that the criticism was “orchestrated and continuing demolition job to paint the project as the opposite of what it truly is.”

However, science advocates have slammed the project.

“Complete or partial blocking of the natural sunlight will affect the remaining food chain of Pasig River,” said the science group Advocates of Science and Technology for the People.

“From the tiniest plankton to the remaining fish species and riparian vegetation, all organisms will be affected by the drastic alteration of the river’s illumination,” the group added.

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