No big surprise, EMA found wanting again
PORT SPAIN
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Petroleumworldtt.com
06 22 09
LAST TUESDAY'S High Court ruling that stopped operations at Alutrint's La Brea smelter plant should have been "totally expected", environmentalist Prof Julian Kenny has said.
Speaking to the Express at the weekend, Kenny said this is not the first time a decision by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has been overturned by the court, nor will it be the last.
Kenny was referring to the 2002 refusal of the EMA to grant a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) to international oil company, Talisman, allowing the company to conduct 3-D survey in the Nariva Swamp.
Following an appeal by Talisman to the Environmental Commission, that decision was overturned by Justice Zainool Hosein on the basis that a fair hearing had not been granted to any of the parties. The CEC was later approved, with the imposition of strict rules on the company's conduct in the swamp.
"This is not the first time that the EMA has been found wanting by the court for not following prescribed procedure. Tuesday's decision was totally expected by me," Kenny said.
On Tuesday, High Court judge, Justice Mira Dean-Armorer, quashed a CEC granted to the National Energy Company allowing it to build an aluminium smelting plant at Union Estate in La Brea.
In her ruling, Dean-Armorer found that proper procedure had not been followed and that the NEC had not been clear on how it planned to properly dispose of spent pot-liners-a highly-toxic waste product of smelters-nor had proper data been provided on the long-term effects of the smelter on the health of the nearby community.
Kenny emphasised that now, at least two smelter-related industries should be brought under scrutiny. These are a mega-power plant that is to serve the smelter and the planned industrial port at Claxton Bay, which is being protested against by environmental activists and fishermen in that area.
"The Government's entire approach is one of divide and rule," Kenny said.
"They are going about this development in a piecemeal fashion and the overall consequences are therefore hard to predict. Nobody can say what the eventual effect of that port will be. Look at the way Clifton Hill beach was destroyed after Atlantic LNG built its channel. Who's to say what the effect of the port will be on Vessigny beach?"
One indication of that "piecemeal" policy, he said, was the change in 2008 to the quarrying laws, which now states that a CEC is not necessary for any quarry project under 150 acres. (See pages 9 & 21)
He said, too, that the EMA does not possess the human resources to meet its agreements on environmental law. Kenny added that the EMA and other similar institutions are also too close to the political scene to be truly independent.
"A lot of the time, the State influences or forces it," he said.
"It is a centralised system of Government that is simply doing what it wants. And the board of the EMA is very political, so it can't be truly independent. There are many people around the country who can make the right contributions to the EMA but they are not politically acceptable."
Story by Kim Boodram from Trinidad & Tobago
Express
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Monday, June 22nd 2009
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