Around 89 surface points and 65 underground points in rivers and streams in Pará, Roraima, Rondônia, Acre and Amazonas are monitored to guarantee water quality. Constant analysis is fundamental to identifying the condition of water bodies and defining the appropriate treatment for effluents, preventing any damage to the health of the environment and people in the Amazon region. More than 50 physical, chemical and biological parameters are checked.
Water quality monitoring is being carried out in the five states of the Amazon region where Grupo BBF (Brasil BioFuels), Latin America's largest palm oil producer, operates. The action is being carried out in allusion to the 'Day to Combat Pollution', where the company reinforces the importance of its rigorous water resource management program and the use of sustainable processes in oil palm cultivation.
"Ours is private monitoring, but it is of considerable magnitude. The monitoring we carry out is carried out by independent companies and consists of analytical procedures aimed at periodically evaluating water resources, since they measure the physical, chemical or biological properties of the water," says Carolina Casado, Sustainability Superintendent at Grupo BBF.
Among the main activities of Grupo BBF 's water management program are collections from surface and underground water courses; physical and chemical laboratory analysis of samples with technical interpretation; application of control measures; evaluation and monitoring of the effectiveness and cleanliness of effluent treatment systems; preparation of technical specifications and evaluation of proposals from water monitoring suppliers; and implementation of water and effluent control and treatment systems, for reporting to user areas and the competent environmental agency, enabling preventive and corrective action to be taken.
"We are in five states in the Amazon region and concentrate our sustainable oil palm cultivation in Pará and Roraima. We are aware of our environmental responsibility, especially as we are in a region that is so important for the planet's biodiversity," explains Milton Steagall, CEO of Grupo BBF.
As well as complying with the National Water Resources Policy by managing and monitoring water sources and encouraging conscientious consumption, respecting the limits granted for water abstraction, effluent treatment is carried out at the operation. The company maintains 44 effluent points in the five Amazonian states in which it operates.
"After undergoing a physical treatment process, our industrial effluents are used as an efficient source of nutrients in the fields. We use a mechanized system that has already been applied in various agricultural markets to ensure that the effluents from our three extraction plants, located in Roraima and Pará, are applied evenly by sprinkling on the plantations, meeting the criteria and procedures established in the authorizations issued by the competent environmental agencies, avoiding pollution of the soil and watercourses," says Carolina.
In addition, Grupo BBF continually invests in improvements to the communities around its operations, proving that it is possible to combine environmental preservation, socio-economic development and the generation of jobs and income in the northern region.
Grupo BBF (Brasil BioFuels), a Brazilian company founded in 2008, is the largest palm oil producer in Latin America, with a cultivated area of over 75,000 hectares and a production capacity of 200,000 tons of oil per year. The company is a pioneer in creating sustainable solutions for generating renewable energy in isolated systems, with thermoelectric plants powered by biofuels produced in the region. Its agricultural activity recovers areas that were degraded until 2007 in the Amazon, following the Oil Palm Agroecological Zoning (ZAE), approved by Decree 7.172 of the Federal Government, of May 7, 2010.
The company has created an integrated business model in which it operates from the beginning to the end of the value chain - from sustainable oil palm cultivation, crude oil extraction, biofuel production, biotechnology and renewable energy generation. Grupo BBF 's operations are located in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima and Pará, comprising 38 thermoelectric plants (25 in operation and 13 under implementation), 3 oil palm crushing units, a soybean extruder and a biodiesel industry.
