FFOS 2018 wish-list: Maintain the environment

Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) issued a 14-point wish-list for 2018 calling for fresh measures to protect the environment.

They urged a “Right to a Healthy Environment” be restored in the 2017 National Environmental Policy (NEP) and entrenched into the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago.

The NEP must clarify the Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) process and prevent any developer deciding the format, guests and reporting method of the requisite public consultation.

The Government must enact Principle 10 of Rio Declaration that is a right of access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters so that all influential documents in major projects are available to the public.

The Government must legislate for the protection and job security for whistle blowers reporting on environmental crimes and corruption.

Petrotrin and the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries must make public all oil spills and accidents, with all reports to disclose the type and volume of spilled hydrocarbon, risk to human health, and the type and volume of chemical dispersants used in clean up oil spills onshore and offshore.

Petrotrin must reveal for the last 10 years, how much crude oil was bought from private operators such as AV Drilling, compared to that produced by Petrotrin. Further, the Government must rationalize Petrotrin’s $4.62 billion loss in 2016, and explain why Petrotrin’s average wage is $272,000 per year compared to the minimum wage of $31,200.

The Ministry of Works and Transport must halt all construction on Package 1 of Phase 1 for the Churchill Roosevelt Highway Extension to Manzanilla Project (CRHEM) to allow public consultation, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and application for a fresh CEC.

EIAs must be done before seismic blasts, given new scientific evidence of the blasts negative impact on zooplankton.

The Ministry of Planning and Development must comply with the Privy Council ruling to revise the permit fees under Air Pollution Rules and Water Pollution Rules so the permit-holder pays for the cost of cleaning up its pollution.

The Government must halt all new or renewed quarry licenses until laid-off checkers are reinstated to measure how much minerals are being removed so as to tabulate the royalties and taxes due to the Treasury. All outstanding royalties must be paid in full. The impact on quarrying of the environment must be assessed nationally,

All illegal and legal quarry operators shuld get 90 days to obtain quarry licenses or be shut down. The Government must review the rehabilitation bond in quarry licenses.

FFOS urged the Government to heed Auditor General Majeed Ali’s concerns in his Report on the Public Accounts 2016, of large leakages in revenues as royalties and taxes are calculated for the oil, gas and quarry sectors based on “the extractors own estimate and without any regulatory oversight to confirm extracted quantities”. “In the same way that the “ fake oil” scandal involves Petrotrin knowingly paying for oil it never received, FFOS warn that there could easily be a “fake gas” conspiracy.”

FFOS urged fishing communities and fish-spawning areas of the North Coast be protected from poaching by shrimp trawlers.

The Government should pass the Beverages Containers Bill, with a suggested 20 cents refundable fee for each container, to spawn the birth of hundreds of container recycling businesses employing thousands of landfill scavengers to create wealth out of waste. The capacity of the Environmental Management Authority’s (EMA’s) must be increased to boost its role to manage the environment, FFOS urged.