Brief on Smelta Wars Trinidad & Tobago (1st July, 2009)

On June 16th 2009, in the High Court of Justice, Port-of-Spain, Justice Mira Dean-Armorer ruled that the decision on 2nd April, 2007, by the State’s Environmental Management Authority (EMA), to grant a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) to Alutrint Limited, a State Corporation, to construct a 125,000 metric ton per year aluminium smelter was, with respect to handling of hazardous wastes and cumulative human health and environmental impacts, outrageous”…“irrational”…”shrouded in secrecy”… and… “procedurally irregular”. The CEC was duly “quashed”.

Justice Dean-Armorer ruled on one of the three separately filed but jointly heard applications for leave for judicial review of the EMA’s decision to grant Alutrint a CEC. Hearings had taken place in November and December 2008. The Judicial Review applied only to the decision making process used by the EMA and not whether an aluminium smelter was a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ form of development for T&T.

Present for the ruling were the ‘who’s who’ of T&T’s legal profession - the handsomely paid attorneys who had represented the EMA, Alutrint, the Attorney General’s Office and the pro bono attorneys representing the claimants – disadvantaged individuals, community based organizations and environmental NGOs. The courtroom was packed, mostly with residents of the communities surrounding Union Industrial Estate, the proposed location for Alutrint’s smelter in South West Trinidad. A request for a stay of judgment pending appeal by the defendant was denied.

Outside there was jubilation. The Judiciary of T&T had demonstrated independence. In the days leading up to the judgment Alutrint had placed four page colour advertisements in the local newspapers extolling the benefits of their smelter. In downtown Port-of-Spain’s Woodford Square, on June16th, just prior to the reading of the judgment, some 80 residents of Sobo, Vessigny, Square Deal, Vance River and Union Villages - located within 2 Kilometers of the proposed smelter - carried out a ritual burning of the environmental reports and assessments submitted by Alutrint to gain permission from the EMA. Some 4,100 persons live in these villages. An additional 5,000 persons live within a 4 Kilometer radius.

But jubilation was short-lived. Two days later, when asked by the press if the ruling would result in stopping smelter construction, Prime Minister Patrick Manning answered “no” six times. The Ministers of Energy and of Planning, Housing and Environment similarly insisted that despite the ruling "the project was being established in the best interest of the people of the country and will come to fruition in due course".

Aluminium smelters have been at the helm of Manning’s heavy gas based industrialization agenda to achieve developed country status by year 2020. Smelters are intensive energy consumers and T&T has gas. Manning’s planned industrial agenda will require a doubling of existing electrical power production.

Construction of the Alutrint smelter began in late 2008. Some 200 plus Chinese nationals may have temporarily paused work on Alutrint due to the judgment, and while Manning contemplates his next move. However, works on the related 720 mega watt smelter power plant, port facilities, harbour dredging and gas supply lines continue. Permission for this related infrastructure was sought and granted separately by the EMA. The fragmented approvals process designed by the EMA prevented cumulative health and environmental impacts from being properly assessed and thwarts the consequence of the judgment.

On Easter weekend 2004, the National Energy Corporation (NEC) “ambushed” the local community and began clearing 800 acres of forest under the guise of drilling a new oil well. The forested area provided recreation – hunting, fishing, farming and animal husbandry. It contained three dams where locals fished, swam and had ‘cook ups’. For locals it was “Eden”. For the NEC it was a “brownfield” site containing abandoned and capped oil wells.

Permission to clear the land to make way for Union Industrial Estate was obtained through an Environmental Impact Assessment prepared by the Institute of Marine Affairs (a state organization) and approved by the EMA. The forest was clear cut prior to the processing of applications by potential industrial tenants including Alutrint. This gave the impression that construction of the smelter was a foregone conclusion. Health risks from future industrial pollution were to be managed by new technologies. Jobs were promised. Everyone would benefit.

But things changed. Surrounding communities, although economically neglected for three decades and keen for new jobs, are increasingly aware of the smelter’s health risks. Five years of dry season dust blowing off 800 acres coupled with more recent construction noise and vibrations is causing widespread bitterness. Word got out that negotiations for relocation of all households within Alutrint’s ‘buffer zone’ - a 300 foot radius from the smelter - were to have been concluded prior to commencement of construction. Global aluminium prices have collapsed. Sural, a Venezuelan private ‘downstream industry’ company with 40% equity in Alutrint pulled out of the partnership. T&T’s proven gas reserves are less than 13 years at existing extraction rates. Repeated requests to government to provide a cost benefit analysis for Alutrint continue to fall on deaf ears. The Chinese government is providing 100% financing, labour and equipment. This means no local jobs or service opportunities.

In February 2008, a Medical Monitoring Report for Alutrint’s operations was prepared by the Caribbean Health Research Council and the International Institute for Healthcare and Human Development. The Report acknowledged the significant human health risks associated with aluminium smelters and proposed x-rays and cancer testing every 6 months for workers and similar testing for the 4,070 residents within a 2 Kilometer radius of the plant. This information remained concealed from the communities by the EMA and Alutrint and only came to light when concerned citizens shared it a few weeks ago.

Also concealed was the intended closure of Vessigny Beach, the last remaining major recreational asset for miles, once the Industrial Estate becomes operational. Polls show repeatedly that citizens of T&T are overwhelmingly opposed to aluminium smelters for a variety of reasons. There is a fight going on right now between local residents unwilling to be tested like “laboratory rats” for cancer and a government committed to an agreement to supply cheap gas to Alutrint to produce aluminium metal to repay the loan from the Chinese government for supplying and constructing the smelter.

On July 1st, after commenting on the need for a Caribbean Court of Justice to be the final appellate court for Trinidad & Tobago, and in response to a question on what would happen if the appeal process of the Alutrint judgment reached the Privy Council, Prime Minister Manning admitted that the London based court “might rule in favour of environmental preservation rather than sustainable development”, stating that “the UK is a developed society with standards that are relevant to them but not relevant to us”.

The appeal process may not be appetizing for the Prime Minister. Technocrats in Alutrint and the EMA are probably already working on a draft terms of reference to kick-start a brand new process for Alutrint to gain environmental clearance.

In any event, a younger generation has defined aluminium smelting in T&T to be “anti-sustainable development”. A line is clearly drawn in the sand. The writing is on the horizon, the winds of change are gathering across blue Caribbean Seas.