Eden District Municipality issues first atmospheric license

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The Eden Distric Municipality has made history by presenting the first atmospheric license to a refinery.

The license hand-over took place on Friday, 20 July when Western Cape Local Government Minister, Anto Bredell, awarded the license to PetroSA's GTL operations manager, Michael Nene.

In a statement the Eden District Municipality said "PetroSA is the largest industry in the Southern Cape and therefore the drafting of the Atmospheric Emission License took some months to prepare and to draft."

"The most important aspect of the license was to look at the influence of the facility on the neighboring environment, including health, social conditions, economic conditions, cultural heritage and ambient air quality. Although the new air quality regime put a major responsibility onto Eden DM, the new dispensation also created improved service delivery and overall improved performance." the statement said.

Speaking at the event, Bredell said "air quality governance is about sharing the responsibility between the different spheres of government. It involves establishing ambient air quality standards as well as air quality management planning and reporting. While there is a constant need to work together, it is imperative that we firstly acknowledge our duty of care, as government, as citizens and as the various social institutions to preserve and protect our environment for future generations".

Eden District Executive Mayor, Wessie Van Westhuizen said: "Our commitment towards our new vision, 'Eden a future empowered through excellence, is our commitment towards persistent excellence to the improvement of the health and the Quality of Life of our people'. The vision of our Air Quality Management Plan, is: 'To have air quality, worthy of names Eden and the Garden Route'".