All of last week, the news was dominated by the question: Where is the Environmental Compliance Plan for the Causeway connecting the Stake Bank - slash - Port Coral Crude Port to the mainland.
The Minister of Sustainable Development LANDY HABET told us it existed and was approved in 2019 - but couldn't produce it. Meanwhile the former government said they certainly did NOT give a greenlight to the causeway, and, in fact, said that part of the Port Coral project was a no go until public consultations were held.
But, the National Environmental Appraisal Committee - known as NEAC - chaired at the time by the Chief Environmental Officer, Martin Alegria allegedly approved one.
We say "allegedly" because members of NEAC at the time have disclaimed any knowledge of that.
So, things were left hanging - until this afternoon when Chief Environmental Officer Alegria held a virtual press conference to hold up the ECP - and say he had it all along, just that it was lost in the shuffle because the Ministry of Sustainable Development is moving office. Today, in that virtual session he produced the document plus an explanation of how the 2019 ECP came to be signed:
Jules Vasquez
"Where is the environmental compliance plan of 2019 for the causeway which would connect north drown caye or stake bank caye with Belize City?"
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"It's in the Department of Environment's files. To begin with, this is the 2019 - if you can see here. This is the environmental clearance, the letter which usually accompanies the actual environmental compliance plan which is usually signed at the end of the day by the investors. Last week when my minister went to your program, I didn't know that he was going on. So I didn't have the opportunity to provide him with copies like what I am showing you here today. These are all the ECPs for the interest that you have since 2007. The document exists, its right there open in the library."
Jules Vasquez
"Who signed it on which basis, because in 2017 the minister in charge of the cabinet investment sub-committee said that they did not agree to it, because there we no public consultation, it was a non-starter. So that was the directive from the cabinet, so we progressed to 2019 and no one I spoke to from the cabinet knows about the approval. So I am asking just plainly who signed it and on what basis specifically and was there cabinet approval. Did the members of NEAC approved it?"
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"I don't know about cabinet, we weren't privy to cabinet decisions back then we didn't. Now they email it and publishes it around. So I won't be able to answer you on cabinet decision or not."
Jules Vasquez
"So, you signed that 2019..."
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"I signed all the ECPs, many of them during the course of a year, so it is signed based on the NEAC's recommendation."
Jules Vasquez
"Shouldn't there have been through a public consultation?"
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"That discussion was held in 2006-2007 where the NEAC at the end of day when they reviewed all the meaningful inputs from the general public from an environmental perspective, please. From an environmental perspective they viewed that a causeway can be approved and permitted and hence in 2007, the ECP for north drown caye included the causeway. In 2013, these 2 projects revived again. It was 6 years after the approval of 2007 that the investor came back and said he is reviving his project.; In 2013 the NEAC deliberated and ask for what we called stock take exercise into an addendum. They say go back, look at the EIA, the proposed development plan design layout that you have see if it is the same that you are proposing now."
"In the case of when the stock take exercise in the addendum that was sent to the NEAC in 2013, north drown caye was right there and its isolated, so very little had occurred or change in the environment. The proposal that is being proposed at the time 2013 is identical to what was approved by NEAC in 2007, so the NEAC reviewed and said well in this case we can go ahead and basically signed new ECPs for this, because there is no difference of what was approved by NEAC in 2007 to what is being requested now."
Jules Vasquez
"But so how could an ECP be granted in 2019 when cabinet gave a clear directive, no fresh public consultation, no ECP in 2017? This is one, two: If you said NEAC approved it, I know there are members of NEAC who were there in 2019 who say that it never came to NEAC in 2019, we need to have the minutes, 3: why has this followed such an irregular path? Why is it not on the website of the department of the environment?"
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"Again, the legal advice obtained is that ECPs, once we signed ECPs its difficult for us to change the details of it if an investor wants to do the same thing that he had proposed and got a approvals for. That's the legal advice."
Jules Vasquez
"So ECPs last forever? after two years, is it still valid after that?"
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"The legal opinion that we got was that an ECP, you see that press release that we have with 2 years and reviewing it and so on, they are looking at it and saying that if a developer justifies properly, it can be far more than 2 years and so they are telling us that 2 things would happen: that the ECP that we signed in 2007 is still valid, it's still relevant. 2013, the ECPs of 2007 were legitimized or legalized with the signing of the 2013 ECP. 2013-2017, it was 4 years when the stake bank project was reviewed."
Jules Vasquez
"And at the same time, you have the cabinet saying no fresh consultations, no causeway. You didn't get that memo?"
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"What discussions are held at the cabinet or the cabinet sub-committee I am not privy to that. I am sorry. But what discussions when they have a draft if it is to be signed or a letter saying that the ECP is still valid, those are things that we review and we also pass on to the decision makers for their input."
Well, one official who says he was not at all informed is Alegria's former boss, Minister of the Environment, Omar Figueroa. He sent us a scathing statement today saying, quote,
"I would like to make it absolutely clear that I had no knowledge of the existence of this ECP. In fact, this could not have surfaced under the previous administration because I personally informed the Chief Environmental Officer that Cabinet had issued a clear directive regarding this. No decision could be made without first conducting meaningful public consultations, and without the final approval of the then Cabinet. It is beyond amazing that such a major ECP could remain top secret for over two years. Minutes of the NEAC meeting where approval was authorized should be made available immediately. Several NEAC members cannot recall any such meeting. The emergence of this secret ECP underscores the importance and need for the legislative amendments that replaced the chief environmental officer in his role as chair of NEAC." End quote.
That's a damning indictment and we too have asked Alegria for the ECP and the minutes. On the ECP, he said he would have to scan it and send it for us, while on the minutes of that approval meeting, he said he would have to talk to his CEO to get approval - which we disputed since it is a matter of public record and interest.
WE'll keep following it.
