Eskom appeared to have started building at its Safari substation without an approved environmental management plan, the Environmental Affairs Department said yesterday.
This emerged after the Green Scorpions conducted environmental law compliance inspections at five Western Cape sites last week.
"Preliminary findings at the Eskom Safari substation are that Eskom has commenced with construction without approval of the environmental management plan and construction activities are occurring outside the development footprint," the department said.
The environmental control officer also did not keep records as required, its statement said.
In Knysna, the upgrade of the East Fort water scheme by the municipality had been placed on hold until funding had been obtained.
The municipality did not appoint an environmental control officer to monitor the initial work as required by the authorisation.
Construction of the Transnet reverse osmosis desalination plant was still under way and Transnet had appointed the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to conduct baseline monitoring as well as develop a monitoring programme to assess the impact of brine discharge.
An environmental control officer had been appointed on site to monitor the project; however, documents to demonstrate compliance were not readily available.
At the construction site of the Kwanokuthula substation and relocation of power lines in Plettenberg Bay, a large spillage of fuel was observed. It had been there for a while and clean-up measures had not been put in place. Unauthorised construction of a power line on a wetland drainage line had been observed. A soil stockpiles storage area, as well as the construction site, were not demarcated. In addition, alien vegetation had not been cleared and there was ponding of water at the construction site.
There had been deviation from the original project description, which was not approved by the department.
Public Works had ceased all activities of the illegal construction at the Langebaan Military Base as instructed in the compliance notice by the department and there was other compliance with the notice.
Once the findings had been consolidated, decisions would be taken about the type of enforcement action required with regard to non-compliance.
