Last night we showed you how the Prime Minister and the Solicitor General worked to quash enforcement action taken by the Department of the Environment against Luke Espat's port and cruise terminal project. As we reported, the fuss is about land reclamation in the Port Loyola area that Espat has initiated without first getting an Environmental Impact Assessment.
Well tonight, sources tell 7NEWS that managers at Espat's Belize Ports Limited gave an undertaking to have an Environmental Impact Assessment delivered by this Friday, August 25th. But until then, they have submitted this, an Environmental Compliance Plan.
That would seem to be a step in the right direction, or at least some indication that the environmentally rogue operation has some consideration for environmental law. Well, it's not. An environmental compliance plan is developed only after an impact assessment. What's more, under the law, it is prepared by the regulator, in this case the DOE, not the developer.
Despite all that, this one was presumptuously crafted, and was delivered to the DOE, requiring only the signature of Chief Environmental Officer Martin Allegria to make it legitimate. A little too presumptuous and as we understand it, the document has not been signed.
