La Concerned Citizens United Respond to Comments by Prime Minister in Newsday on 1st July, 2009

Dear Editor, In your July 1 article “PM: Smelter Work Won’t Stop”, The Prime Minister’s statements about the High Court ruling on the Alutrint Smelter CEC is misleading in several regards.

The Prime Minister states that that the court had objected to the process under which the CEC was granted and not to the smelter plant itself. The article has the effect of giving the false impression that the Court case was about the merits of the smelter and that, having considered these merits, “the courts did not object to the smelter, the courts just said the process needed to be beefed up in a certain area” and that’s what they were “seeking to do now”. We wish to clarify for the public that the Court case was never about the merits of the smelter. It was about the process followed by the EMA in granting permission to Alutrint. In this regard the judge found that the EMA acted in a manner that was “procedurally irregular” and “irrational”.

The real significance of this judgment is not that the EMA needed to “beef up” its process. The significance is that the courts found that towards the end, the process had been corrupted. The EMA was found to have acted “irregularly” not only with respect to the law but also with respect to its own track record on handling the CEC case. In the end, the battery of high powered lawyers representing the EMA, Alutrint, and The Attorney General, failed to satisfy the court that the EMA did its job with regard to its purpose as an agency and the laws of our country.

The Court found that the EMA had been following procedures all along for about 18 months but suddenly around March of 2007 their process became “irregular”. The EMA failed to consider the environment and human health effects of the Spent Pot Liners which the experts had identified as the type of waste that posed the greatest threat of harm to human health. The judge considered this failure “outrageous” given the responsibility that our country has placed in the EMA’s hands. The judge then found that the report on the cumulative impact of components of the smelter complex: the power plant, port, and smelter was “shrouded in secrecy”. In addition, there was the most abnormal behavior of the EMA, which received the report on March 27, 2009 and without proper independent expert review or public review, issued the CEC to Alutrint a mere five days later on April 2, 2007 (a weekend included).

Given the findings of the Court on the conduct of the EMA, it is not surprising, that the Prime Minister has stated that the EMA “is moving as fast as possible” to get Alutrint back on track. The Prime Minister, and apparently the EMA, before considering the serious matters of human health that were neglected along with the public’s views on these matters, know the conclusion will be a grant of a CEC to Alutrint.

This serves to fortify our view that the EMA lacks both the integrity and intention to conduct an independent CEC process. Aside from its failure in the CEC process for Alutrint, the EMA has ignored our complaints for about four years about serious effects of activities of the Union Industrial Estate on the environment and our health. The EMA has allowed the NEC to violate the CEC it granted for the Union Industrial Estate. You just have to come to Sobo, Vessigny, and Square Deal to see how we are covered in dust, the sickness, and the destruction of the Vessigny River. The EMA has allowed Alutrint to violate its CEC with respect to commencing works before settling relocation of residents that fall within the buffer zone. This Agency has been nothing short of hostile and blatantly unconcerned about our communities and the environment.
The EMA, Alutrint, and the NEC would have to be taking God out of their thoughts to come back here to La Brea for the planned pretense of “beefing up” or conducting a new CEC process. La Brea Concerned Citizens United