Officials of BK International and Bulkan Timber Works yesterday attended a meeting with the Environmental Assessment Board on BK’s planned sand mine at Yarrowkabra on the Soesdyke/ Linden Highway and its possible effects on its neighbours.
And the EAB should be handing down its decision today as to whether BK International will get an environmental permit to commence operation of the sand mine.
According to a source the EAB summoned the two parties to the meeting to get from them additional comments and information prior to making its decision. A public hearing last week Thursday had to be aborted as residents of the area got into a shouting match with workers of BK International and order broke down.
“The Board invited both BK and Bulkan to a meeting to discuss certain points. The two parties also had an opportunity to be heard and a decision will be made [by today],” the source who was present at the meeting disclosed to this newspaper.
At last week’s meeting, a prominent environmental engineer, Charles Ceres, said that there must be at least an environmental and social impact assessment done before determining whether the sand mine should be a go. Ceres asked that BK International does a comprehensive health assessment to assess the impact of sand blowing around. He said that this is a concern since there is the risk of silicosis, a respiratory disease caused by breathing in silica dust.
Howard Bulkan of Bulkan Timber Works objected to the sand mine on the grounds that sand would pervade the wood processing operation, affecting the health of persons employed there and the operability of the wood processing machines. He said too that an old disused water tower can fall because of the vibrations from the sand mining operation, posing a threat to life and limb.
Bulkan Timber Works said that the sand mine could have impacts on water quality and wants BK International to do an assessment study of these potential impacts.
An officer of the EPA said that the agency found on the visit that the area comprised mostly secondary forests, with no major waterways, and with no storage of fuel on the site. Further, the EPA officer said the fact that no major infrastructure works were planned as part of the project aided in the decision that an EIA was not necessary. The EPA however did point to possible impacts being dust nuisance, noise nuisance and water pollution.
