Illegal quarrying taking a toll

By Julien Neaves
Wednesday, February 3rd 2010

PRESIDENT of the Quarry Association of Trinidad and Tobago Ramdeo Persad says his group is not proud of the local history of quarry rehabilitation and after use.

’In the majority of cases, quarries on both State and private lands have simply been abandoned without even the barest rehabilitation measures being implemented.’

He noted that ideally quarrying is regarded as a temporary activity and upon termination, the land should be restored and rehabilitated so it could be utilised for other productive purposes.

This practice was the focus of the six-day University of Trinidad and Tobago and Energy Ministry workshop ’Quarry rehabilitation with special emphasis on agriculture’ which held its opening ceremony last Friday at the National Academy for Performing Arts, Port of Spain. Persad said that with the enactment of the Minerals Act 2000 industry regulators like the Energy ministry made the rehabilitation of quarrying sites mandatory. He noted, however, that the Act speaks only in broad terms and there are no regulations detailing remedial measures that should be adopted at specific mineral sites. He advised a training programme in quarry rehabilitation be initiated by the ministry’s Minerals Division. He said that in spite of the poor record in quarry rehabilitation a few quarry operators have been successful, notably H P Lee Ling and Company Ltd at Valencia which has active quarrying in one section while exhausted areas are transformed into a recreation site that includes huts, cabins and lake. Persad said that abandoned quarrying sites could be utilised for a variety of purposes including forestry, agriculture, real estate, parks, recreational sites, water reservoir, aquaculture and nature conservation. He noted this country is a very small landmass and we can no longer allow the sterilisation of thousands of acres of land. ’As an association we are not pleased with the situation and are prepared to play our part in reversing it.’ At the ceremony Environmental Management Authority CEO Dr Joth Singh reported a total of 18 abandoned or non-operational quarries locally and showed slides from sites in heavily quarried Valencia with unsecured open pits that have accumulated water, another one with overburdened stock piles and visible erosion, and an unidentified site with acidic water. The ministry’s Permanent Secretary Leroy Mayers, representing Energy Minister Conrad Enill, said that the ministry will be taking an inventory of abandoned quarries that had not been rehabilitated to develop a plan to firstly restore vegetation and then explore other productive uses. In the midst of a drastic drop in rainfall in the past few weeks and Public Utilities Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid asking citizens to tighten their taps, the EMA’s Singh is calling on the quarrying industry to conserve the country’s precious water resources. He said water consumption within the quarrying industry can be significant, especially large quarries, and noted that National Quarries Company Ltd is consuming over a billion gallons of water per day - or more than 45,000 swimming pools. ’I think that is really critical because... Trinidad and Tobago clearly is facing an issue with water shortage,’ he told the media following the ceremony. In his presentation he noted the EMA recommended this and other quarries utilise a closed loop system, where water that is extracted is continued to be used and not discharged, or where this is not possible systems are implemented to cleanse the water before it is discharged. The closed loop system also reduced pollution as Singh presented a slide from North Oropouche where a heavy sedimentary water area was changed to clearer water after the system’s implementation. On the issue of the water pollution rules, where a permit is required for certain levels of waste water discharge, Singh noted that a minority of quarrying companies had registered. He added that the EMA was setting up operations to pursue the others on a legal basis. Source: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business_mag?id=161590773