TRINIDAD: Environmentalists Win Round in Smelter Plant Battle

• by Peter Richards (port of spain)
• Wednesday, June 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Activist Dr. Peter Vine, who was arrested two weeks ago protesting outside the plant in the southwest peninsula village of La Brea, shared his elation, telling reporters, 'No smelter, no problem.'

'Finally, we got a square deal and a not a raw deal,' said Abigail Modeste, who had also protested the construction and the government’s plans to relocate her community.

'Before, I was annoyed, angry, worried,' she said. 'Today, victory is ours. We know this is not the end of the war, but we won today's battle.'

It has taken Kublalsingh and other anti-smelter activists, including the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Rights Association, the Smelter Caravan and People United Respecting Environment, nearly four years to successfully challenge the decision of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) to issue a certificate of environmental clearance for the start of construction of the plant.

Flanked by their lawyer, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, a former attorney general who argued that the EMA did not take all environmental factors into consideration when granting the certificate, the environmentalists erupted into wild applause as Justice Mira Dean-Armorer delivered her 156-page ruling.

'I hold that the decision of the (EMA) was procedurally irregular, irrational and made without regard to a relevant consideration,' the judge said. 'That is to say, the consideration of the cumulative impact of the three related projects - the power plant, the aluminium complex and the port facility. The decision (to grant the certificate) is hereby quashed and remitted for the consideration of the (EMA).'

Officials from the EMA said the agency was reviewing the judgment, but insisted that 'most aspects of the ruling went in our favour' and that the ruling 'itself concedes the EMA has performed well in its attempts to achieve balance between the economic and environmental factors in achieving the goal of sustainable development.'

A spokesperson for Alutrint, the company seeking to build the smelter, said the ruling would not affect the construction of the power plant that is vital to the project.

All sides, including the government, have hinted that the matter may end up before the London-based Privy Council, the country’s highest court.

Maharaj said the fight had only started and demanded that Prime Minister Patrick Manning cancel the project entirely – a highly unlikely scenario.

Energy Minister Conrad Enill says the government has no intention of abandoning the smelter, despite the court ruling and a series of demonstrations by area residents concerned about the health impacts.

'There are those who say that democracy does not work. It is very clear that democracy is working. It is very clear that if people believe that their rights have not been dealt with in a particular way, they have recourse; and the government would stand by whatever that judgment (of the court) is,' Enill told reporters after the ruling.

'But the government is also prepared in the interest of the people of Trinidad and Tobago to do whatever it considers necessary for the long-term survival of our people. And at this point in time, we believe that getting into this particular (smelter) business is appropriate. And that is what we would seek to do,' he added.

The government said it had already invested nearly seven million dollars on phase one of the project which deals with site preparation.

Last month, the Manning government signed a framework agreement with China for the provision of 112 million dollars representing the balance of a concessional loan from Beijing for the construction of the smelter plant. The agreement represented the final part of the financing for the project to which 300 million dollars had already been provided under a buyer’s credit memorandum signed earlier.

China's ambassador to Trinidad, Huang Xing, said the China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation, which is building the Alutrint Aluminium Smelter Complex, would seek to hire as many locals as possible during the construction phase of the plant.

'Alutrint’s aluminium complex will create jobs and training opportunities beyond even its fence-line communities; as entrepreneurs of all sizes will now have direct access to 5,000 tonnes of one of the most valuable manufacturing compounds - aluminium, at one time prized and valued higher than gold,' the company said in a supplement published in the local newspapers over the last weekend.

The company insisted that 'cutting edge technology' would be used at the smelter plant here and that it would 'make use of the world’s most advanced and proven methods of pre-bake and air dispersion to minimise the potential for unpleasant emissions'.

'The Chinese government has made a commitment to phase out their older Soderberg plants. All their new smelters are based exclusively on the pre-bake technology,' said Alutrint’s acting chief executive officer, Philip Julien.

But in her ruling, the judge noted that although there had been public consultations involving residents of the area, the threat to their safety and that of the national community still existed.

'In my view, the instant case falls into a category of its own, where errors on the part of the defendant can have far-reaching consequences for the health and national safety of the national population,' she said, noting that once the certificate was granted 'the door is shut to the public's input'.

Justice Dean-Armorer said the testimony of several scientific experts, as well as residents, revealed proper consultations did not take place.

'The court does not have to be the Academy of Science to notice such observations,' she said, noting also that key findings on what would be done with the waste material (called SPL) that would be generated by the smelter plant were missing from the EMA’s evaluation.

'It appears to me that having regard to the hazardous nature of the SPL and its potential to cause harm to human health it was outrageous of the decision-maker to leave such issues unresolved before the (certificate) was granted,' she said.

Construction of the first phase of the project was due to start this month and be completed in 2011. Phase One would be a smelter with a capacity to produce 250,000 tonnes of aluminium a year, while Phase Two - an expansion of the plant by another 250,000 tonnes a year – would begin in June 2011 and be finished in September 2013.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service