Just over a dozen citizens on Friday picketed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its non-response to a letter raising several concerns with its handling of the oil and gas sector.
The letter, signed by 54 citizens and dispatched to both the EPA and Environmental Assessment Board (EAB) on August 29, called for the bodies to be more compliant with the Environmental Protection Act. Additionally, it called the EPA to better assess projects in the oil and gas sector as well as make the relevant information accessible to the public.
At the picketing exercise, the citizens brandished a number of placards calling on the EPA “monitor and enforce the Environmental Protection Act” as well as “stop waiving EIAs for oil and gas toxic waste facilities.”
Danuta Radzik, one of the picketers, said that the EPA is not fulfilling its mandate to protect the environment and communities. She called on the body to step up and do its job while noting that it has a history of not fully assessing every project.
She said that the exercise was to get the EPA to address the secrecy surrounding the environmental permits issued for onshore facilities dealing with waste from the oil and gas sector.
“…they must stop waiving environmental impact assessments for waste facilities [that] are in communities where all kinds of hazardous and even radioactive waste is being brought from offshore to onshore and also, in some cases, chemicals. Dangerous and toxic chemicals are being stored in facilities in communities or very close to communities.
“We were also concerned about the lack of stakeholder consultations by the EPA on matters that concern the citizens of Guyana. We live in communities, we have our families, we have our children in communities and for us the safety, the welfare of our communities and our families is paramount. It’s more important than the profits or the money from oil and gas companies in Guyana,” she said.
Radzik said that their letter to the EPA and EAB listed a number of recommendations that the EPA continues to ignore. She also said that the group is hopeful that the picketing exercise would force the EPA to issue a response to the letter.
“We know that the EPA must publish, make available to everyone in Guyana including communities, the environmental permits they have granted to facilities who are dealing with, receiving, storing and disposing of hazardous radioactive waste, chemicals and other oil and gas waste. We want to know who they are also, where they’re located and the environmental permits that have been granted to them to do what,” she said.
Former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson was also among the group of citizens showing his solidarity. He said that the concerns of the group should be addressed but expressed scepticism that the EPA would actually respond.
In their August 29 letter, the citizens expressed dismay that a US$1 million dollar grant from the World Bank to strengthen the monitoring and enforcement capacity of the EPA was not fully utilized and failed to achieve the intended outcome. This grant, along with other funding, was intended to establish a corps of personnel including 34 highly specialized and experienced petroleum, geological and environmental engineers to be employed by the EPA.
