Coverden residents are relieved that the Environmental Assessment Board (EAB) has thrown out the EPA’s decision to not require an impact survey for a project to store radioactive materials in the East Bank Demerara (EBD) community.
“We at Coverden are very relieved that the powers-that-be where able to make such a wise decision, ruling in favour of Guyana rather than a foreign interest. We are sure that all Guyanese are heartened as a result, and feel like equal participants in our nation building,” Penelope Howell, an appellant to the EPA’s decision, told Stabroek News.
She added, “We shall remain vigilant and wait to see the required impact assessments.”
Non-Destructive Testers Limited (NDTL), a Trinidad-based company, has partnered with National Hardware to undertake the venture. The storage facility is to be located at 1-2 Coverden, East Bank Demerara.
The EAB in its decision said that it had recorded three formal appeals dated 7th March 2022, 16th March 2022, and 18th March 2022 regarding the EPA’s decision to waive the requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), for the NDTL project. The EAB added that the submitted written information regarding the storage of the radioactive sources and the oral submission on the potential use of these sources changed the scope of the project. Further, the risks which are identified and assessed may likely change, given the expanded project scope.
“The absence of an identified procedure or plan to address exposure prior to project commencement is also noted. The new application of this source within the oil and gas sector, nested within a populated residential community, requires baselines to be established for monitoring and proximity considerations for safety, without which, effective prevention, management, and mitigation of risks would not be possible. The sensitivities toward the lives and livelihoods of the Coverden community regarding the storage and potential use of radioactive sources within close proximity of residences need to be addressed through scientific studies, and effective engagement with the residents of Coverden throughout the process. In view of the above, the EAB sets aside the decision of the EPA that no EIA is required for the Project”, the EAB decision said.
The EAB noted that the application submitted to the EPA by the Developer referred to the storage of radioactive sources at the project site. However, it said that the EPA assessment as part of the Agency’s site verification outlines the use of radioactive sources on-site in its description of the operating process for the facility. Further, the approvals of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council refer to welding and fabrication, as well as storage of X-Ray Materials. Oral submissions by the EPA and the Developer at the Public Hearing stated that the facility will be used for storage only but that there was a possibility that this could include the use of the sources at some point in the future. The EAB said it was noted that the type of risks that will be monitored and mitigated will be different in an environment where there is the use of radioactive sources. The assessment of risks for storage where there is a potential for use of these sources to be added, limits and/or invalidates the efficacy of any identified mitigation measure, the EAB added.
Decide
Meanwhile, Kemraj Parsram, the Executive Director of the EPA, told Stabroek News that the agency will write NDTL and inform them of the EAB decision so that they can decide whether they will be conducting the impact assessment or not go ahead with the project.
“Either we proceed with an EIA or they may choose to not go ahead with the project,” he said.
Stabroek News reached out to NDTL for a comment but did not receive a response. However, Nicholas Boyer of National Hardware, the company that partnered with NDTL for this project, told Stabroek News that while they are just the landlords, if residents do not want the company’s operations in their community, there is nothing that can be done.
At the public hearing by the EAB on July 7th, the appellants had kept up the pressure on the EPA and Non-Destructive Testers.
“The developer presents the best-case scenario, I am concerned with the worst-case scenario,” appellant Dr Stacy Wilson-James told members of the EAB. She noted that numerous diseases can stem from radiation exposure that are not reversible and would be life impacting.
If there was a leakage from the facility, it would take six months before residents would know if they were exposed as the company would only be conducting biannual checks for potential leaks, she said.
Unconvinced by assurances that residents will not be affected by NDTL’s operation, Wilson-James noted that as part of its safety procedure, the badges of employees must be tested every month. She added that they are basically testing whether an employee was exposed to radiation without having to alarm them and may not tell them if it was so. She concluded that this can only mean that NDTL is only interested in protecting themselves and their operation.
She pointed out that NDTL has outlined lines of communication in the event there is an accident or contamination but residents of Coverden are not included in the communication chains. “When will we be informed that we have been exposed to radiation?” she asked.
“EPA please live up to your name: protect the environment,” Wilson-James added.
Howell questioned why the EPA is opposed to conducting an impact assessment even though from the very beginning – as this was not the first hearing related to the project – residents have been in favour of the EIA.
Howell said the location where NDTL intends to conduct its operation is where “ordinary people conduct ordinary activities.” She notes that there is a drain near the facility where children play and brought to the fore the issue of disposal.
Before an environmental permit is approved, she argued, details of daily activities surrounding the area should be known, while stressing the importance of an impact assessment.
Although NDTL said they would not be using the Demerara River to transport the materials to clients, Howell says they are not convinced, saying that the location was chosen for a purpose. However, NDTL said that transporting the equipment via water was a consideration, but this would not happen in the foreseeable future due to country laws.
Now that the EAB ruling for NDTL’s project is out, residents are hoping that the EPA will re-examine the Global Oil Environmental Service (GOES) project to operate a Waste Treatment Facility for transfer, storage, treatment and disposal of Oil and Gas waste at Coverden. GOES is a US-based company.
“Our concerns and objections to them were exactly the same as for Non-Destructive Testers Limited – which is Trinidadian based,” Howell said.
“It cannot be proper for us to be asking a Caribbean/CARICOM sister state to do the necessary Impact Assessments, and be giving a global giant, the green flag or go ahead in Coverden as well, without the same standard impact assessments, which international best practices require, when our objections are the same for both GOES and Non-Destructive Testers Limited”, she said.
