17th June, 2009, Press Statement from La Brea Concerned Citizens United on Judgement by Justice Mira Dean-Amorer on EMA's Award of a CEC to Alutrint

The concerned residents of La Brea are relieved that justice has been served in our struggle to protect our communities and lives from Alutrint and the people who want to force this smelter on us.

We thank the judge for upholding the integrity of the judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago. Justice Mira Dean-Amorer is a role model not only for t­­hose in the judiciary but throughout the country. We in La Brea know that integrity does not have a colour, it does not have a political party, and it does not have an economic status. We are grateful for the persons of integrity from other parts of the country that took this case to court and fought it on moral principles.

We are grateful for the attorneys who gave their time freely. We are grateful for Mr. Anselm Carter, of Square Deal who stood with integrity against the tide and took this case to court. We are grateful for all the persons young and ol­­­d in La Brea today who have the courage to come out and say no to this destructive smelter. We are grateful for the many citizens of Trinidad who have come to our events or have sent letters of support to us.

We wish to reiterate the main points of the judgment in this historic case. The Judge, having cited the submissions of experts that spent pot lining posed the greatest risk to human health ruled 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 an issue unresolved before the CEC was granted. A reasonable decision maker would have insisted that the information sought by conditions would have been settled before the CEC was granted.”

In addition to the manner in which our health in La Brea was disregarded, the Judge spoke about the irregular way in which this happened. In ruling on the failure of the EMA to properly assess the cumulative health impacts of the port, power plant, and smelter on the people of La Brea the judge noted that “for no apparent reason” the March 28th cumulative impact report submitted by Alutrint was “shrouded in secrecy.” “Not only did it escape the Administrative Record it was never placed on the National Register. It seems that in respect of a factor as important as cumulative impact, which could have far reaching effects on the human health and safety, the Authority could have on the one last occasion exercised the meticulous care which it had taken throughout the preceding two years.” The Judge noted that the EMA received the cumulative impact report on March 28, 2007 and granted the CEC on April 2, 2007 a mere few days later without proper review.

We note that the EMA not only disregarded our health but appears to have shown a bias in favour of Alutrint. This fact should trouble all citizens of Trinidad. If we as citizens put an agency to safeguard our community and health and it behaves in a way that suggests it is more loyal to a company than to its national mandate, we must all worry. Today it is La Brea. Tomorrow it could be Maraval.

The Judge concluded that the decision made by the EMA to grant Alutrint a Certificate of Environmental Clearance was “procedurally irregular” and “irrational”. We would have thought that the quashing of Alutrint’s CEC would signal to our elected leaders that something is wrong. Instead we see Minister Emily Dick-Forde Gaynor, Minister of Physical Planning, Housing and Environment saying on the news that the CEC process was “flawless”. Should this Minister not be taking stock of what actually went wrong rather than soldiering on in denial? Is it unreasonable for the residents of La Brea to have expected some reassurance from her that she would look into the matter and ensure that our health was safeguarded?

The Minister of Energy, Mr. Conrad Enill, says that they will move ahead with the project and told the morning news on June 17 that the Government is seeing the long term benefit in this. This statement betrays what has been in the hearts of all those pushing this smelter on us – that the people of La Brea are dispensable. They think it is okay to destroy our communities, our lives, and our children’s lives so that some people can make money.

However, the contempt in which we are regarded could not have been better reflected than it was in the words of our very own representative, Fitzgerald Jeffrey, who, rather than being concerned said he was actually “disappointed” in the ruling of the Court because he saw the smelter as a way of getting the people of La Brea “out of the gutter”. So there we have it. Mr. Jeffrey sees himself as representing a gutter. An aluminium smelter belongs in a gutter. People in a gutter deserve to be deceived and to have to take their children every two years to find out if they are dying from cancer. This is what is in the mind and hearts of the people pushing this smelter. The truth is out of the bag.

We would like to draw your attention to another truth. Alutrint’s smelter exists only in the dreams of a few people and the nightmares of thousands. Take a look at the site, there is no smelter on that ground. No smelter is going to be built on that ground.