Environmental aspects of the Berlín geothermal power station in El Salvador

Abstract

Environmental legislation throughout the world has been created to protect and conserve the environment and human health. Within the legislation is included an environmental impact assessment (EIA) as a tool to decide between the benefits of the development and unchanged environment. Before the advent of EIA decision makers often looked only to the economic or engineering aspects in their planning process. Geothermal development is considered as a benign resource but the technology and the management of the resource cause possible negative impacts on the environment and sometimes severe impacts on the communities. Environmental aspects of the Berlín geothermal power project in El Salvador are presented is this report and the different steps that needed for the project execution are shown. In the absence of the legal instrument for the EIA process in El Salvador, the project was initiated by Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as part of a funding approval. Complementary environmental studies were carried out to create an action plan for the construction and operating phases. Social, cultural and economic data from of these studies will help to develop social service program for the communities.