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TRINIDAD: Activists to Sue Over Disputed Smelter

Peter Ischyrion

PORT OF SPAIN, Apr 5 2007 (IPS) - Activists have vowed the challenge the legality of a decision by Trinidad’s Environmental Management Authority (EMA) this week to green-light the construction of a controversial aluminium smelter plant, terming the approval a declaration of war.

“We have been betrayed by the EMA… we were sold out for 30 pieces of aluminium,” said Norris Deonarine, head of the National Foodcrop Farmers Association, who told reporters that a letter had been sent to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez since his country is joint owner of the proposed plant.

Dr. Peter Vine, a physicist and university lecturer, insists that the pollution models used by the EMA were highly speculative and not based on reality.

The plant, to be located at the Union Industrial estate south of here, would process 125,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. It will be built using Chinese technology, but Vine said that the health records of workers at existing smelters in China have still not been made available.

“It is amazing that the government would go ahead with this smelter, considering these facts and criticisms,” he said.

Activists also say it is disheartening that they were asked to make their presentation to the government regarding the smelter plant on the same day the EMA was providing clearance.


The proposed plant is one of two the Patrick Manning government has been trying to build for a number of years, but which have generated tremendous opposition from anti-smelter campaigners across the country.

The U.S. firm Alcoa is also considering building a 1.5-billion-dollar plant here. Energy Minister Lenny Saith says that discussions are ongoing about an alternative site, since the cabinet decided against the first choice.

“Alcoa has continued to indicate an interest in Trinidad and Tobago,” Saith said, even as the U.S. company acknowledged that the decision to grant a certificate of environmental clearance to Alutrint would not automatically mean a green light for its own project.

“I think all projects have to be judged on their own environmental merit. I don’t think it is a case of a precedent being set,” said Wade Hughes, director of Alcoa Trinidad and Tobago.

“We still think that Trinidad offers a long-term prospect. We will continue to work with the government on that front until a site is found and developed by the government. We wouldn’t expect to see an Alcoa smelter in operation in Trinidad for some years,” he added.

At a late evening news conference Tuesday, EMA official said the agency was giving the majority state-owned Alutrint project – Venezuela is the other partner – the go-ahead after determining that the plant would meet all the “environmental standards associated with operating an aluminium smelter”.

“The task the EMA will now face, as we move forward with this application, is one of monitoring and understanding what the baseline conditions are, so we can examine any shifts in terms of the human health of the area or impacts on vegetation and wildlife,” said EMA managing director Dave McIntosh.

He said the EMA was “ready, willing and able” to monitor the operations of the smelter and would dedicate EMA compliance officers to work full-time on the Alutrint matter.

Anti-smelter campaigners were unimpressed. Julien Kenny, an environmentalist and former independent legislator, said the Alutrint plant may violate two local laws.

According to Kenny, while public consultations on the smelter’s approval had been held under the EMA Act, the Manning government had bypassed town and country planning laws that require compliance with the national development plan.

“What is being done at Union Estate now is contrary to the plan which says the land is reserved for forest and agriculture,” he said.

“This isn’t just routine, but is huge and will affect other people,” he said, noting that any variation in the national plan must be taken before the parliament for approval.

Former attorney-general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, who now heads the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Rights Association (TTCRA), said he intends to challenge the legality of the EMA decision.

Maharaj contends that the decision to grant the CEC to Alutrint was illegal because the EMA applied improper water and air pollution standards that had not been approved in accordance with the existing EMA legislation, which provides for public comment on standards before being approved by the parliament.

“This right of the citizen to participate was not followed,” his group said, referring to a London-based Privy Council ruling involving a local environmental group that held “neither the government nor EMA has power to dispense with citizens’ right of consultation”.

“Since the air pollution and water pollution standards were not set in accordance with the law and were in fact arbitrarily fixed by the EMA, there is a serious threat to the right to human life and environment if an aluminium smelter plant is operated on the basis of the approval granted by the EMA,” the TTCA added.

Coincidentally, a 2004-2005 report by a Joint Select Committee of Parliament that was laid in the Senate on Tuesday also raised questions about the plant at Union Estate.

The report examined whether the state-owned National Gas Company (NGC) had followed proper procedure when it sought EMA approval to clear the land. It noted that a CEC had been granted to undertake preparation and development works at the Union Estate.

“However, if there is evidence that the clearing took place prior to the said certificate being granted, this would constitute a breach of the environmental clearance rules and is therefore a basis for the issuing of a notice of violation,” the report said.

But despite the ongoing controversy, many residents of the area believe the smelter will bring much-needed jobs and other economic benefits.

Local historian and smelter advocate Arthur Forde said people in La Brea and surrounding villages were organising “a thanksgiving service and other events to mark the end of the difficult period the residents went through while the EMA was processing the application”.

The parliamentary representative for the area, Hedwige Bereaux, who is also the deputy speaker of Parliament, described the EMA approval process as a “professional job”.

He said the plant would provide jobs for a number of people and that those who oppose the project should now “shut up and keep quiet”.

 
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