The sponsor has presented plans to address these impacts to ensure that the proposed project will upon implementation of the specific agreed measures, comply with the environmental and social requirements, the host country laws, and regulations and the World Bank/IFC environment and social policies and the environmental, health and safety guidelines. The information about how these potential impacts will be addressed by the sponsor/project is summarized in the paragraphs that follow. Further information is provided in the attached Corrective Action Plan (CAP), which is agreed upon between the IFC environmental team and the sponsor and will address the compliance gaps with IFC’s requirements.
Liquid wastes management and air emissions:
The water sources for majority of Rise facilities are from municipal water supply. Some facilities have their own wells. The water from municipal supply and onsite wells is used only for processing. Rise purchases bottle water as drinking water source for its employees. Since there is not manufacturing process in all Rise facilities, there is no requirement from local government to treat the wastewater generated onsite. The liquid effluents are either discharged directly to the municipal sewers, or to the onsite septic tanks. Rise uses its own tank trucks to transfer the wastewater and solids in the septic tanks to municipal wastewater treatment plants. Air emissions from Rise facilities are from the onsite gas-burning boilers during the winters. The local environmental agencies check the emissions at least once a year.
Hazardous material management:
Gasoline and diesel are stored in underground tanks at some Rise facilities. The underground tanks were built in recent years with double steel layers, which have all passed the integrity checks from the local government agencies. There are 19 ammonia storage tanks at Radyvyliv facility with the total capacity of 5,700 tons. The concentration of ammonia is approximately 19%. There is leaking at some of the tank connections. There are no fences or hazard signs surrounding the ammonia storage area. Rise will take remedial actions, as required in the CAP, to fix the leaks, set up a permanent fence with hazard signs in Ukrainian.
Solid/hazardous waste management:
The package materials at Rise facilities are separated to be sold to licensed recyclers. The other domestic solid wastes are picked up by contractors and sent to municipal landfills. The only hazardous wastes generated onsite are waste petroleum products, which are sold to licensed purchasers for recycling and disposal. Rise facilities use limited engine oil, hydraulic fluid, and other petroleum products, with the exception of Rivne facility, which has a transportation fleet of 30 trucks and an agricultural machinery maintenance shop. There is no dedicated storage area with secondary containment for engine oil and waste engine oil drums at Rivne facility, which will be corrected according to the CAP.
Occupational health and safety:
Rise provides occupational health and safety training regularly to all its employees and major customers. There are also in-depth trainings for regional managers. All the employees shall have the training certificate before starting the work. Rise also provides field seminars to small customers for health/safety issues of various chemicals. Material safety and data sheets (MSDS) in local language are packed for each package of fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide. According to Rise management, there is no accident of chemical poisoning for its employees and customers.
All the warehouses at Rise have been inspected and certified by Ukraine government for dangerous chemical storage. All the Rise transportation vehicles have the certificates from Ukraine government for transportation of dangerous chemicals. If contracting out the transportation task, Rise only contracts the transportation companies with certificate for hazardous chemical transportation. There are minor violations in the warehouse against the good industrial practice, such as roof leaking, storage of the seeds and dangerous chemicals side by side, etc. Rise stores fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides in most of its facilities. The local offices of Ministry for Health of Ukraine monitor the indoor air quality inside the warehouses periodically. According to the Rise management, the monitoring results meet government requirements. There is no workplace ammonia level monitoring for the ammonia storage area.
Rise provides basic personal protection equipment (PPE) for its employees. There are masks with cartridge for emergency usage in the Radyvyliv facility, where ammonia is stored onsite. However, the employees are not required to take the masks with them while working at the ammonia storage area. All the employees at Rise have the free annual physical examination. There is no health insurance for the employees. Rise is now under negotiation with insurance companies to provide medical insurance in the near future. Currently, Rise subsidize to its employees’ medical costs on a case by case basis. There is no statistic data for recordable accidents in Rise.
Rise will identify a team of occupational health/safety (OHS) experts to conduct a gap analysis between its present OHS operations and WBG/IFC’s requirements, as required in the CAP. A corrective plan will be drafted and implemented to enhance the OHS operations and meet WBG/IFC requirements.
Environmental, health, and safety (EHS) management system:
There is no environmental, health, and safety (EHS) management system in Rise, and there is no designated officer at Rise corporate level to lead and coordinate the EHS issues for each facility. The individual facility is coping with the EHS issue by itself. However, the EHS management in each facility is not consistent and ineffective with various deficiencies. Rise will appoint an EHS and social affairs manager to coordinate the corporate-wide EHS issues, and develop an effective environmental management system (EMS), as required by the CAP.
Fire prevention and emergency response:
There are onsite fire fighting and emergency response drills for Rise employees. However, the fire fighting equipment is not maintained regularly. The Rise facilities are large, and Rise could not use all the land/warehouse. Most of the Rise facilities lease out part of its land/warehouse to different tenants. Rise will make the tenants aware about the dangerous chemicals stored onsite, and the tenants will participate in related the health/safety training and emergency response drills, as required by the CAP
Rail terminal:
Most of the Rise facilities have access to the rail roads for transportation. All the train terminals were built years ago, and are not maintained properly. Rise will identify a rail road expert to rail terminal safety auditing, and develop a program for maintenance and retrofit, if necessary, as required in the CAP. Rise will implement the program to ensure the safe operations of the rail terminals.
Pesticide and integrated pest management:
Most of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, stored at Rise facilities, are hazardous materials according to their toxicities. Rise does not store/sell any pesticide or chemicals that subjected to international phase-outs or bans. The crop protection department in Rise also provide technical assistance to the farmers to increase production and reduce cost, including prioritizing/minimizing the usage of dangerous chemicals as pesticides. The Rise management is required to implement the integrated pest management (IPM) program, which is a key tool for their ongoing process to help the clients for a sustainable farming.
Community relationship and community development:
All Rise facilities are located in the industrial zones in the suburban area, and away from any residential areas. There is no complaint from local residents, and no court arguments with the local residents. Rise tries to increase the relationship with local communities through hiring the local people and contracting out works to local companies. Rise also provides funds for local schools, culture heritage, sports events, etc. Rise intends to implement a sustainable community development program.