Cockpit Country EIA talks no sham, insist author, Noranda
Published:Thursday | December 10, 2020 | 12:13 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The main players behind an environmental impact assessment (EIA) related to mining in the controversial Cockpit Country’s SML 173 are insisting that Tuesday night’s community consultation presenting the findings was not a sham.
Dr Conrad Douglas, who authored the report, and Noranda Bauxite Company General Manager Delroy Dell were placed on the defensive after an online participant, identified as L. Creary, argued that the granting of the special mining lease to Noranda more than two years before Tuesday’s EIA presentation was a clear indication that the green light had already been given “at the highest level” and the entire process was a pretense.
Dell denied that any clearance had been received for mining and insisted that no ore extraction had begun in the area.
“The Government granted SML 73 the mining lease in 2018, but one part of the terms and conditions, for the execution of that lease, is a requirement for environmental permits to be obtained. So although a lease was granted, it said subject to the acquisition of the environmental permits, mining could not start any at all,” he said.
“We have been through the application process for the permits for well over a year, so if this was a rubber-stamping of the mining lease and the execution of mining, I would think that the permits would have been granted a long time ago,” he added.
Douglas also rose to Noranda’s defence, although admitting to chairman Fae Ellington that based on the sequence of events in the process, the public could have suspicions.
“That is why I stressed during the presentation that no mining can be done unless the necessary approvals and environmental permits are issued. None,” he stated, adding that an EIA became a necessary part of the process after a 2015 amendment.
Dell was again challenged by a participant who queried why the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) had slapped the bauxite company with a cessation order on March 19, 2019, for conducting bauxite extraction within the area.
“We were guilty of committing a breach. I must accept that and just put that on public record. And we wrote to NEPA and apologised for the breach,” he said. “We had an overbody, which straddled both our existing lease and SML 173, and there was encroachment to the extent of just over an acre into a portion of SML173. So that is what really happened in regards to that cessation order.”
Douglas’ apparent role as spokesperson for Noranda evoked grave concern and outright scorn from others participating in the session. Chief among them Hugh Dixon, executive director of the South Trelawny Environmental Agency.
“Conrad, you are speaking for Noranda or as an EIA consultant?” Dixon asked at one point.
“This project means that there is everything to be lost – biological diversity, health and welfare, livelihood, etc, etc, and nothing to be gained. There is no sustainability or benefit from any of this. Dreadful!” he added.