Albert Loewen's company "AL Construction Limited" is a major hardware provider out on the Placencia peninsula. But tonight he's in the environmental crosshairs because of the ugly discharge his barge has been putting into the waters around Placencia. These pictures and video taken in mid-March and again yesterday show a thick black discharge coming out of the barge - polluting the waters - and the black streak runs for about two to three miles we are told.
Lowen told us it's not oil - he says it's just the exhaust from the diesel engine and nothing more. He says it would just seem like soot - the same kind you see coming form a bus - if he were to point the exhaust in the air - which he may do. He adds that he's gotten the exhaust cleared with the department of the environment and it's not harmful. We could not confirm this with DOE.
But the Commissioner of the Belize Port Authority, Major Gilbert Swazo told Belize Breaking News that Loewen has been issued a notice of "prohibition from sailing" until a mechanical problem that causing pollution has been fixed.
The barge, we should note has received a notice of seaworthiness by the Port Authority.
Loewen adds that it is a "brand new barge."
