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Danger in NEPA's carelessness

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  • Danger in NEPA's carelessness

    Tuesday, September 22, 2009
    WE can hardly fault the agriculture minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, for being impatient with the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) over its failure to identify the source of the September 1 fish kill in the Black River in St Elizabeth.
    For, according to NEPA's acting chief executive officer, Mr Peter Knight, the agency was lethargic in its response to the complaint of contamination in the river.
    "We couldn't identify who or what and the circumstances of what occurred, because - and I am the first to admit it - we probably could have been more timely in our response," Mr Knight told this newspaper last week.
    Aside from Minister Tufton's argument that the Black River "is one of the most ecologically fragile areas in the country" and as such NEPA should have been in a position to "more effectively monitor the area", we have no doubt that his concern is also rooted in the fact that the river is the source of livelihood for hundreds of people in his constituency.
    Based on the statements coming out of NEPA, it appears that the environmental agency rushed to conclusion on the issue when, on September 3, it issued a release stating that "Initial investigations point to the possible contamination of the river by the wash-out of dunder applied to canefields in the area".
    However, on September 9, NEPA issued another news release saying that laboratory testing of water sampled on September 2 "do not point to a link between the use of dunder and the fish kill".
    Added the release: "The information gathered indicate that the possible cause of the fish kill originated within the Lower Black River Morass, downstream of Lacovia and south of Holland Estate. There are no known facilities within the Lower Black River Morass which discharge wastewater into the river or its tributaries."
    Our question therefore, is why didn't NEPA await the results of its water tests done on September 2 before issuing a release on September 3 suggesting the possibility of contamination by the wash-out of dunder?
    We are not aware that NEPA was under any pressure to give the source of the pollution. And even if the agency was being pressured, the professional response would have been "no comment until the tests are completed and the results verified".
    As it now stands, NEPA's bungling has created in the minds of many people the impression that dunder was the source of the pollution, even though the agency corrected its blunder in its September 9 news release.
    Agencies charged with the kind of responsibility entrusted to NEPA cannot operate in such a careless manner, as their actions impact on businesses and the welfare of the people employed by those businesses.
    We are, therefore, encouraged by Mr Knight's revelation that the agency is already working on a new mechanism to respond to environmental problems. For, as we reported last week, this was not the first time that NEPA was unable to definitively identify the cause of a fish kill in the Black River as investigations into a similar incident in March 2007 turned up nothing.
    Our hope is that whatever is put in place actually works and works well.
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