Smelter Plants and Pollution - What is Really going on?
Emissions from the aluminum smelting process include hydrogen chloride, chlorine, hydrogen
fluoride and dioxins. Solid waste from a smelter is disposed of by landfill. Brick laced
with fluoride and cyanide residues result from the smelting process. Other residues are
also used in the manufacture of cement.
Apart from
the air, land and sea pollution, the smelter plant produces intensive heat and noise.
Green house gases emitted prevent heat from escaping into space resulting increased
temperature and higher tides. Trinidad's heavy industries have already wrecked havoc on
the eco-system and the following is a sample of the effects on peoples life.
David McIntosh of the EMA stated that the EMA cannot prosecute anybody because T&T has no air polltution laws. No wonder ALCOA loves Trinidad!
One testing station in the entire island at PT. Lisas, when we have
multiple industrial sites in the country and if emissions are way above
desired level, too bad nothing legally can be done. Before even
considering any more polluting industrial projects, let's get the air
pollution laws passed with multi-million dollar fines for big
companies. Not that any paltry amount can faze a company like
ALCOA that has earnings in the billions (US$).
| This Information is dated: |
2005 |
Cedros Peninsula United - Press
Release
We wish to alert the relevant authorities of the continuing
collapse of our fisheries in the Gulf. Whereas on previous occasions we have been
complaining of the bulldozing of the sea beds by Deep Sea Trawlers, the signals now seem
to suggest that ongoing chemical pollution is taking a heavy toll on our fisheries.
For a while now we have been observing dead catch-e-come (sea tattoo) being washed ashore.
This situation is very obvious at night-time for by day break the dead catch-e-come would
have been eaten by corbeaux, gulls and other birds.
The catch-e-come is an indispensable link in the seafood chain and a most endearing friend
of every fishing enthusiast and fisherman, offering itself as ready bait for the cro-cro.
Its ongoing death is a definite sign that the sea beds in the Gulf are being poisoned.
Another sign of this contamination is the thick oily mud that is taking over our once
sandy sea beds and making life very difficult for all fishermen, especially those who do
net fishing such as the fillet boats and land seines. This thick oily mud sometimes makes
it impossible to boat the nets which are often weighed down by the huge quantity of such
mud. And the mud just keeps growing deeper and thicker as it keeps coming further inland
binding itself into the sands of the beach, which are becoming thicker, stickier and
softer
As the chemical mud takes its toll on our fisheries, fishermen are feeling the pain. This
pain turned into grief this year when the off-shore shrimp - large, medium and especially
the small, honey shrimp - a yearly occurrence during the months of February through May,
failed to show up this year. And the big question to many: “Will they ever show up
again?”
This is a telling blow not only to our fishermen, but even to the young sea enthusiasts in
the Peninsula, who, for the fun of it as well as for high protein food, could easily pull
out a few hundred pounds of honey shrimp, as well as a few pounds of medium and large
shrimp, during their Easter vacation. Not this year!!! The shrimp refused to show.
Another observation made by veteran fisherman Patrick Ramjohn is that many sea snakes,
which usually would be in the deep, are coming closer to the shores and even molesting
fishermen when they are scrubbing of the barnacle from their boats. Moreover, like our
catch-e-come, the chip is becoming scarcer and scarcer everyday.
Fishermen are of the view that the contaminants from the LNG and the Point Lisas
Industrial Estate which run off into the waters of the Gulf are slowly but surely
poisoning the seas and sea-beds and destroying their livelihood.
And then there are the ones … those who consider themselves better informed than the
others … who believe that the pollution and poisoning of the Gulf has to do with the
thousands of barrels of toxic waste, used by a T&T oil company as supports for
undersea pipe lines laid down some years ago - really the dumping of waste in our ocean!!!
It is their feeling that those barrels are now rotting and leaking their poisons into our
seas. The fish and our fishermen are today the sorry victims of that crime.
“Who is to guard the guards?” The same ones who are covering up, of course, for
they are well aware of all that’s going on in the Gulf!
Added 16/06/05
-
|
