Chatham, La Brea give thanks

Residents to rally together after judge stops smelter plant
Kim Boodram
Thursday, June 18th 2009
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161492728

A joint celebration is in the works for the people of Chatham in South Trinidad where the Government once proposed to build an aluminium smelter, and those from La Brea who opposed the Alutrint facility.

Head of the Chatham/Cap-de-Ville Environmental Group (CCEG) Fitzroy Beache said yesterday his community will soon rally with the residents of Square Deal and give thanks for this week's High Court ruling against the Alutrint aluminium smelter plant at La Brea.

On Tuesday, High Court judge Justice Mira Dean-Armorer declared Alutrint's Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) for the project to be invalid.

Chatham residents were thrust into the national limelight when they came out to protest the State's plan to allow international aluminium company Alcoa to build a smelting complex that would have displaced most of their community.

"This victory is as significant to Chatham as it is to La Brea," Beache told the Express in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The struggle against the smelters was started here although they had started cutting down the land in La Brea, Vessigny and Union Village first. We started the struggle when the Government came here and when we saw what was happening in these communities. We learned from what was being done to them."

Beache added that despite their apparent victory and relative quiet of the past year, his community remains vigilant.

Referring to statements last year by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that the Chatham smelter will still happen one day, Beache said the residents are ready to challenge the State at any time.

"We have won part of the battle in Chatham and La Brea, but we are ever vigilant," Beache said.

"You never know what the prime minister will get up and say. The nation has already heard that in spite of the court ruling, he intends to continue with the smelter, totally against the wishes of the people."

Speaking to the Express yesterday, attorney Rajendra Ramlogan, a member of the team that represented the people of Square Deal, said Tuesday's ruling brought to the fore the importance of respecting the process of public consultation.

"What this judgment does is to place, centre stage, the importance of public consultation in the environmental management process," Ramlogan said.

"Public consultation is really the cornerstone of environmental democracy and this ruling certainly is a giant leap into this important area."