Do we want to become the largest user of electricity in Caricom?
Do we want more greenhouse gas, global warming and sea higher levels?

To smelt - to fuse or melt (ore ) in order to separate the metal contained. Smelter is derived from the word smell - to perceive the odor of through the nose. Unfortunately it is not a pleasant smell from a smelter and Trinidad, a rich Caribbean land with 1.1 million people on an island only 5,128 sq km in area, has one of the highest population densities in the world, for no amount of money should have one of the world's top polluter on its island. The average population density of Chile where they are rejecting Alcoa is 17 per sq. km, Iceland is 2.7 per sq. km and Trinidad 249 per sq. km. We are far above the Latin America average of 48 per sq. km. We are not a barren desert with no other means of survival to lower ourselves to an industry that harms its workers, the population, the food, the land, the sea, the air, the beaches. We, an educated population can do better than this. Do we want to go this way?

Do we want to become the largest user of electricity in Caricom? Do we want more greenhouse gas, global warming and sea higher levels? Trinidad is party to all of these environmental treaties: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands. Are we going to ignore these agreements?

"Eco-system" means a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.- Article 2, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity - quote from Prof. Kenny. He also states that Trinidad and Tobago does have a rich freshwater fish, amphibian and reptilian fauna, and a few are found nowhere else in the island  except - the southwestern peninsula.

Prof. Julian Kenny "...Orchid fanciers will extol the wonders of the Cedros bee Orchid, Oncidium lanceanum, for its beauty, scent, and the long life of its flowers. Another is the balisier by the name of  Heliconia marginata, one of the five species that occurs locally. It is distinctive in that the inflorescence is pendulous. You will not find those occurring naturally except on the southwestern peninsula in wet forested areas at the edge of the los Blanquizales Swamp.

Let us take next freshwater fish. The silver hatchet fish, Gasteropelecus sternicla, is found naturally only in the Chatham River and the adjacent Quarahoon River. The Cedros Guabine, Erythrinus erythrinus is found only in an un-named stream that passes below the South Trunk Road just outside the village of Bonasse, at B1/71. As for frogs, there are the slender toed frog Leptodactylus macrosternum and the tree frog Hyla minuscule, and the poorly known reptile Thamnodynastes strigatus."

In response to the question - What about other air emissions? Alcoa says "An operating license granted by the local government then, typically, sets stringent air quality standards that must be met". How can our government set standards for a multi-national company when we don't have set standards on our books. Alcoa has been found guilty of violating the Clean Air Act in Texas, obviously the US  with all its environmental laws cannot control Alcoa. Do we expect our government to be able to control them?  Its too late when you have to pay fines, it does not negate the violation, the polluted air.

In response to the question - How will spent potlining be treated? Alcoa says "It's too early for us to know at this stage how we will deal with spent potlining, which is the aluminium smelting industry's highest volume solid waste."   This is just amazing, they want to build a smelter and are not sure how they will deal with the majority of the smelter's garbage. Is that the kind of corporate citizen Trinidad wants? After so many years in the business and still not sure what they will do with the waste, leads us to ask are they going to dump it in our land, as Trinidad already produces cement, Trinidadians don't need waste filled cement blocks. "Alcoa has set a worldwide goal to reduce solid waste being sent to landfills from existing facilities by 50 per cent by year 2007."- Alcoa. From their mouths they admit they already use in it landfills in their existing factories, and if after so many years of operations they can only pledge to reduce it by 50% (and we know how often words can be broken) that still leaves 50% of  the smelter's waste going unto our land.