Windalco may face financial penalty for deadly river pollution
Published:Monday | August 1, 2022 | 12:10 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
A day after residents protested against a chemical spill that killed hundreds of fish in the Rio Cobre, de facto Environment Minister Matthew Samuda has threatened to hit bauxite mining company Windalco with financial penalties.
The Government has also established a multi`agency working group to review the nagging plague of effluent discharge into the Rio Cobre and to study development along the river.
Samuda disclosed Sunday that Prime Minister Andrew Holness had given the directive for the working group to be convened.
Acknowledging that the damage was significant, Samuda said one potential solution was a draw-down on the environmental performance bond from Windalco that the Government currently holds through the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA).
“I want to assure the Jamaican public that the Government holds this environmental bond, which at the current exchange rate is $115 million, so we will be able to draw down a significant sum to ensure that the cost is felt by the company,” Samuda said during Sunday’s tour of sections of the Bog Walk Gorge that have been affected by Saturday’s chemical spill from the Windaco bauxite plant.
Samuda pledged that the Government would, in the next legislative cycle, table amendments to the NRCA and Wildlife Protection acts to significantly increase the fines for egregious environmental breaches.
Samuda warned that for Windalco to continue operating, the bauxite producer would have to replenish the environmental performance bond.
“The issue facing us today is not a new issue to the people that live along the riverbank and earn their livelihoods from the river,” the minister, who works out of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, said.
“What we have received on this Emancipendence weekend is basically a gift of poison, and that is not what we would have wanted for Jamaica 60.”
A Windalco spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment but said the company would issue a statement Monday.
Meanwhile, Richard Nelson, senior manager of the environmental management subdivision of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), said that PH tests conducted by his team have revealed levels as high as 11.3 since the spill.
The standard PH level of the Rio Cobre ranges between 7.3 and 8, said Nelson. Acquatic life can only survive there at a PH level of 9.
PH tests assess the acidity or alkalinity of water.
Collie Clarke, regional systems manager of the National Irrigation Commission (NIC), revealed that the channelling of irrigation water to farmers in nearby districts was suspended because of the pollution and crop risk.
Founder of the Jamaica Environment Trust, Diana McCaulay, is advocating for a suspension of Windalco’s environmental permit.
McCaulay argued that based on the frequency of chemical spills, drastic measures have to be taken not just to punish Windalco, but to deter other private-sector companies and government agencies that often cause environmental breaches.
“If the fines were substantial to deter persons from committing environmental breaches, I would not be making this call,” McCaulay said in a Gleaner interview.
She supports the proposed government draw down of the environmental performance bond, which could help to repair some of the environmental damage and assist with the economic fallout to the affected residents.
NEPA has issued the bauxite mining company with several enforcement notices since 2011 for pollution of the Rio Cobre.