Environmental Board hears appeal against EPA decision to exempt Le Ressouvenir cement warehouse from impact study

The Environmental Assessment Board on Thursday heard objections to the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to not require an environmental impact assessment for the proposed Vista Trading and Logistics Guyana cement facility at Le Ressouvenir, on the East Coast of Demerara.

The hearing, which was held at the EPA’s head office in Ganges Street, Greater Georgetown, saw attorney Siand Dhurjon, who is representing Singer Guyana Inc. and Shahabudeen Ahmad, the sole appellant, arguing that facilitating such projects without the requirement of an environmental impact assessment has been a pattern of the EPA that should be stopped as citizens of the country will continue to be affected.

Vista Trading and Logistics Guyana Inc plans to construct the facility at Tract A2 Felicity and Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara. The company’s Managing Director, Vinoosh Dindyal, during the hearing told those present that the company is not a batch plant and has no plans to get into that industry. He informed that the company is a Guyanese-owned one that has its core business as material handling.

The facility, Dindyal stated, will see all of the work being done in an indoor warehouse facility, thus eliminating any effect on the environment. With transfers for delivery mostly being done inside a warehouse facility, the managing director stated that they will employ the use of filters and other technologies to ensure that dust and other emissions do not significantly affect the environment.

He noted that the equipment to be used at the facility, transfers and handles cement without any emission or dust wastage due to spillage and as a result any dust is recouped and redeposited given the fact that it is a cost-sensitive process.

According to the managing director, the operation at Le Ressouvenir will include receiving, clearing and delivering of cement to customers locations in Guyana where they will do the processing. He stressed that no processing of cement will be done at the facility.

During the hearing, Dhurjon told Board Chairman Omkar Lochan that one of the functions of the EPA is to ensure that any developmental activity which may cause an adverse effect on the environment should be assessed before activities commence and as a result, adverse effects must be taken into account.

Dhurjon noted that once a project may affect the environment in any way, the EPA should require an environmental impact assessment and if it will not affect the environment then they would be exempt from same.

He pointed out that chemicals within the cement that will be transferred and dealt with at the facility can be linked to fatal illnesses that include cancer, lung disease and other respiratory issues, and these substances, which will be in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, have the ability to kill those around.

“They have to wear a mask, they have to wear a full body suit and yet the EPA has said that this will not affect the environment… they are coming to the developers aid,” he said. The attorney, during his presentation, noted that the EPA in not requiring an environmental assessment for the project can be seen as a disgrace to the nation and questioned whether the EPA in Trinidad and Tobago, where Vista Trading has a sister company, will also not require an EIA.

Dhurjon highlighted a number of issues during the appeal hearing, which included what he noted was dishonesty by the developers as it related to their project summary and much more.

Another attorney, Moen McDoom Jr, who said he represented the interests of a number of named residents of the area, posed a number of questions to the EPA as it related to the process which led to the decision for an EIA to be exempted for the developer.

McDoom highlighted that during initial stages by the EPA and the developers, no representative from the agency or the developer’s company made contact with the residents to ascertain the social impacts that the company would have on the surrounding areas and residents within the community.

EPA officials noted that no approval was given to the company at this stage to proceed with the project.